The 'Ville: Hogs for the Cause and Brunch Fest NOLA

Friday, April 8, 2016

Hogs for the Cause and Brunch Fest NOLA

It’s spring so y’all know what that means: festival season in New Orleans! There were two last weekend: Saturday was the 9th annual Hogs for the Cause and Sunday was the 1st annual Brunch Fest NOLA, both held in City Park.

After loving the event so much last year, Kenny and I didn’t hesitate to buy tickets to Hogs again. (Nola and Nopsi came too, although we didn’t see much of them.) The only thing we were up against was the weather. Really bad thunderstorms plagued the city on Thursday and Friday, bringing LOTS of rain into the area. Things got so bad that the organizers ended up cancelling Friday night of Hogs. Kenny and I weren’t sure what to expect when we got out there on Saturday, but we planned for the worst. We all wore our rainboots, and I brought towels, changes of clothes for the boys, and extra shoes for me and Ken.

The storms were over by late Friday night and Saturday dawned bright and sunny. We all actually ended up getting sunburned (again). However, we also got really muddy: the grounds were SO sloppy. It was literally like being in a pigpen. The boys had such a fun time slogging through the huge puddles of water and mud, though; they couldn’t believe we were letting them do that!

Of course both of them ended up falling into puddles, and we did not bring their extra clothes with us. Riley laughed it off, but we almost had to leave because Rory was not happy with being wet. But we got past it, he eventually dried out, and all of us had a great time.

We of course made sure to visit Scott at Piggy Stardust, Jacque and Lauren at Sweet Swine O’ Mine, and Stacey at Puerco Rico. The boys loved playing in the hay that was spread all over the grounds in an attempt to soak up some of the slop. And Riley even got a skull painted on his cheek by one of the ladies of SSOM.

I also got to meet Jay Ducote, who was out there as a part of the Bacon Rouge team. He was the runner-up on Food Network Star last summer and is a Louisiana native. He actually went to LSU with LPb and her friend A-Ball. He seems like such a great guy, and it was so nice to finally be able to meet him in person.

We made sure to taste the pig and sauce and the Yoda bellies (fried brussel sprouts with pork belly) from Bacon Rouge. We also had the pork mac and cheese from Captain Porkenheimer (just as good as last year!), the pork sliders and the pork gyro from March of the Pigs, and the pork tacos from Puerco Rico. Everything was SO good.

We were heading for the exit around 2:30pm when Riley said he wanted to check out the kids’ area. So we did. And we ended up staying for another hour and a half. We stopped for snoballs on the way home and enjoyed them on our driveway. Then the boys played in the sandbox while Kenny cut the grass and I hosed off all of our pants and shoes. This is what I looked like right before we left the festival:

I think that’s the mark of a good time. See also: your sons making the coverage on Nola.com.

The next day Dana and I had a mini spa day scheduled at the Balance Spa at the Loews Hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed our massages and express facials. Then we headed over to City Park to check out the first ever Brunch Fest NOLA. We arrived around 12:30pm and it was packed. All of the lines were super long, and we were super hungry, so we decided to leave and went to eat at Katie’s instead. Maybe next year will be better organized!