Spamarama (SPAMARAMA) is a long-time annual festival and competitive cookoff held in Austin, Texas, during 1978–2007 and in 2019 and 2022, to celebrate Spam, the branded canned pork product. The festival includes a Spam cook-off, Spam themed competitive activities, and live music. [1][2][4]
Origin
The Spamarama began in 1978 as a joke between David Arnsberger and his friend, Dick Terry, who believed there were too many barbecue and chili cook-offs. The frequent contests seemed silly to them and they felt that a real challenge would be to make dishes with Spam. "If you could make Spam edible, that would be a feat," Arnsberger explained. The two friends considered calling the event a "SPAM-Off", but the name quickly became Spamarama.
Arnsberger was one of the frontmen for the Uranium Savages, the Austin parody band, which had a gig already booked on April Fools' Day at Soap Creek Saloon on Bee Cave Road. They piggy-backed their festival idea on to the band's gig and, 300 spectators and 27 entries later, the first Spamarama was a success. Austinites liked the opportunity to compete in events like the pig-shouting contests, to dress in costume, and come up with creative Spam and pig pun-themed dishes.