Hog Fest 2013
Get Ready for Ben Wheeler's Fall Feral Hog Festival 2013, Oct. 25 & 26
For entry forms including Vendor, Hog Queen Contestants, Cook-Off Contestants and Parade Participants, email: hogfest@bwdc.net or call 903.833.1070.
Ben Wheeler Getting Ready for
Hog Fest 2013!
BEN WHEELER, TX – Ben Wheeler Arts & Historic District Foundation (BWA & HDF) is gearing up for its town to host the 6th annual 2013 Fall Feral Hog Festival, World Championship Wild Hog Cook-Off, Fall Feral Follies and Hog Queen Coronation, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25-26.
The theme for this year’s festival is High on the Hog.
Since 2008, BWA & HDF a non-profit, 501 c (3) organization has been putting on the Fall Feral Hog Festival, which includes a morning parade, an afternoon cook-off and a follies show the night prior to the festival.
During The Fall Feral Follies, Hog Queen contestants compete for the crown—a chance to reign as the official Fall Feral Hog Festival Queen for a year. Hog Queen Mary Ramler took the crown home in 2012. The queen represents the prospering town of Ben Wheeler throughout the year during all of its main events.
This year, the Fall Feral Follies is set for Friday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m. at Moore’s Store with a soon-to-be announced live band taking the Moore’s Store stage for the festivities.
The parade, festival and cook-off take place Saturday, Oct. 26, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with live music on the Pickin’ Porch and at The Forge Annex throughout the day from favorite local and regional bands.
For the second year in a row, the Saturday morning parade features the famous, Shriners and the parade Grand Marshal will be led by Bill Bragg. As part of Bragg’s illustrious past, he served as the voice of Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas for 11 years.
Additionally, an array of fun, pig-themed floats from area businesses and other friends of Ben Wheeler will keep the parade rolling along its Farm-to-Market 279 route.
On festival grounds that day, guests will find an array of fun for the family. Including hog-fan-favorites: a catch-a-pig contest and a hog calling contest.
For those who love to shop, there will be a variety of vendors selling one-of-a-kind wares and enough food vendors to keep stomachs full all day long.
The World Championship Wild Hog Cook-Off will be underway during the festival with cook-off contestants competing for a chance to reign as the supreme smoker king of wild hog meat.
High on the Hog will officially come to a close Saturday night with music at Moore’s Store that night.
The feral hog theme of Ben Wheeler’s weekend festival is meant to poke fun at the continually, ever expanding, state-wide-population of wild hogs. Brooks Gremmels, co-founder of Ben Wheeler Arts & Historic District Foundation, has said since the beginning of the Festival in 2008 that, “We’re just making lemonade out of lemons.”
Feral (wild) hogs are a large problem in Van Zandt County and much of Texas, and North America. Additionally, the omnivores – they eat plants and other animals – are a multi-million-dollar problem because they can disrupt both livestock and farming operations by damaging facilities and fences, and trampling and eating crops. They also are popular table fare and, in some areas, compete with the white-tailed deer as an animal to hunt.
For those wanting to participate in Hog Fest 2013 as a Hog Queen Contestant, Vendor, Parade Participant or Cook Off Contestant email hogfest@bwdc.net for an application and/or participation form.
Ben Wheeler Arts & Historic District Foundation is also welcoming sponsors for this year’s event. If you or your organization is interested in sponsoring Hog Fest 2013, please contact d.standre@bwdc.net.
For more general Hog Fest information, call 903.833.1070 or email d.elam@bwdc.net
In a community with a thousand or so nearby residents, Ben Wheeler Development Company, LLC (BWDC) and Ben Wheeler Arts & Historic District Foundation (BWA & HDF) a 501 c (3) organization has resurrected the town with various entertainment porches, new restaurants, new shops, an historical chapel and schoolhouse as well as various businesses. Ben Wheeler’s renewal, and, growth and development are ongoing.
Ben Wheeler, named for the first man to carry mail into Van Zandt County, thrived during the late 1800s and early 1900s as families arrived in horse-drawn wagons, rode horses, or walked to visit, get mail, buy supplies, and sell or trade goods at one of the several general stores. The community included churches, barbers, blacksmiths, tailors, saddle and shoe shop, several gins and mills, a bank, the Berry Resort Hotel, boarding houses, a movie theater, lumber yard, a garage with gas pumps— eventually, cafes, a school, and even a college at one time called the Alamo Institute. Ben Wheeler shrank after World War II as many people left for large cities to find work.
