If you've visited our history page, you know that we began counting Hog Festivals in 1954 even though there were some earlier "prototypes" in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  Since the beginning, we've always promoted "The World's Largest Outdoor Pork BBQ!"  and that barbecue has included sliced pork, shredded pork, bone-in pork chops and finally, in recent years, butterfly pork chops and pork patties.  And, obviously, there is a charge to defray the cost of meat, charcoal, buns, sandwich bags, paper bags, gloves, aprons...well, you get the idea. However, back in 1954, when things were just getting underway for this Hog Fest thing,  Kewanee celebrated its Centennial and also had a barbecue...it was the one and only time in the city's history that the promotional pieces read "The World's Largest FREE Outdoor Pork BBQ!" That year, enough pork was cooked to feed over 50 thousand people without charge! It was phenomenal at the time and reported in newspapers as far away as Chicago.  Unfortunately, the waste of food and the bills afterward were also phenomenal and so ended the once-in-a-lifetime free meal deal!

Now we serve approximately 35 thousand  sandwiches each year...butterfly pork chops and pork patties...all lightly seasoned and painstakingly cooked by hand with the help of a small army of volunteers.  We try our best to make sure prices don't change much and are fair.  Our butterfly sandwiches are now $3.00 each. That price was raised from $2.50 in 2004 and is the first price increase for butterfly chops since the early 1990s.  Our pork patty sandwiches are $1.00 each and that hasn't changed since the early 1980s! Pricing is reviewed annually every August.