Keystone’s Bacon and Bourbon Festival 2025
Keystone’s Bacon and Bourbon Festival Celebrates 14 Years…That’s a lot of Bacon!
Keystone, Colorado’s newest town is heating up with lively mountain festivals. Celebrating fourteen years and counting, Keystone’s Bacon and Bourbon Festival on June 21 – 22, 2025 presents bacon of all cures, spices and crispiness. Whether you like your bacon chewy, crispy, or blackened, you’ll find a bacon or bacon dish that’s right for you.
Alongside the three bacon companies who will be attending are dozens of varieties of bourbon, mountain merchandise vendors, and local and regional food vendors. Pairing with all this bourbon and bacon-y goodness, guests will find a band line-up built to match the festive vibes. Nine Rock bands will play over the Bacon & Bourbon festival weekend.
FAMILY FUN
The recipe for fun this year doesn’t leave out the kids. Make sure the kiddos head to Camp Bacon and check out local mountain man, Bacon Bill. In addition, Harley the Hog, a mechanical pig, is back for another year of sizzling fun! (Height and weight minimums apply to Harley the Hog.) The Keystone Bacon and Bourbon Festival is the perfect kick-off to the summer season in the mountains at Keystone Resort.
CHEFS & RESTAURANTS
Local Keystone restaurants along with special guests from Denver, Iowa, and beyond will be dishing out unique bacon creations, making sure there’s bacon around every corner. This year’s Bacon & Bourbon Festival is sizzling with mouthwatering creations from Keystone’s favorite culinary talents. Highlights include the return of Groovy’s Mac ‘n Cheesy’s decadent Bacon Popper Mac n Cheese and Rotolo’s Bacon Bourbon Garlic Knots. For a sweet and salty finish, don’t forget to try Funday Sundae’s Presley Sundae, piled with chocolate ice cream, Reese’s peanut butter sauce and of course… candied bacon.
BACON
Is your mouth watering yet? Do not miss the three different bacon companies who will be cooking up and handing out individual bacon slices in all different cures and spice selections. Des Moines Bacon Company, Berkwood Farms, and City Meat Market will serve up sweet and savory bacon as they battle it out for festival title of “Best Bacon” at the event.
BOURBON
Savor the bacon goodness by pairing it with select bourbons including favorites like Breckenridge Distillery, Bardstown, or Bird Dog, just to name a few. The tour will offer a healthy dose of Colorado spirits that one can enjoy with the purchase of the 21YR+ Hungry Hog Festival Package.
MUSIC
They’ve been there since the beginning! The Keystone Bacon and Bourbon Festival is excited to welcome back the all-female AC/DC tribute band, Hell’s Belles, playing both days of the festival. Two days of AC/DC tunes means no one misses a beat of any of their favorite songs. In addition to everyone’s favorite Hell’s Belle’s, and Motley 2, a nationally touring Motely Crew tribute act, will support Saturday’s concert line-up. The 2025 festival concert schedule is packed with other acts including El Loco Fandango – a spot on ZZ Top tribute band, Dealer Takes Four playing an array of rock and roll, along with many more. You can find the full Bacon & Bourbon concert line-up and times by visiting the festival’s informative website: Bacon & Bourbon Music Line-Up. In total there will be three festival stages placed throughout River Run Village to enjoy. Wherever you find yourself in the village, there is sure to be amazing live music from both local acts and regional cover bands.
SEMINARS
Summit County’s own Randall McKinnon harnesses his mountain man, bacon loving character “Bacon Bill” as a part of the Camp Bacon programming. Festival organizers along with Bacon Bill are excited about the Camp Bacon seminars topics for 2025 including the essential Bacon 101. Throughout the weekend guests are invited to gather around the “campfire” in Quaking Aspen and learn some bacon songs, test their overall bacon knowledge, and on Sunday, see who has what it takes to be crowned the Bacon Prince or Princess of the Festival! Each session is FREE to attend and will last around 20 minutes.
TICKETING
The Keystone Neighbourhood Co, producer of Keystone Festivals, is excited to offer some new ticketing options for this year’s Bacon and Bourbon Festival and for Keystone’s entire summer festival series. Returning this year, is the Sunday Funday local pass. This ticket package is back for a second year by popular demand and includes a ticket to Sunday of Bacon and Bourbon Festival, Wine and Jazz Festival, and August’s Bluegrass and Beer Festival! This package was specially curated this year for all the locals who enjoy Keystone Festivals and want to attend each Sunday of the events series. If that’s not up your alley, there are plenty of single-day ticket choices from the full “Hungry Hog” experience to the Food Only – Samplin’ Swine, there’s a ticket option out there for everyone. Another returning ticket package invites the entire family to join in the fun on Sunday. Grab your crew and take advantage of the new Sunday Family Four-Pack which includes 2 Adult Hungry Hog tickets plus 2 Piglet Packages for the little ones. If the festival goer isn’t quite ready to commit to the full immersive festival package, they are in luck as festival organizers encourage the walk-up a-la-carte ticket option through the return of RFID technology. For 2025, Keystone Festivals are using the Tappit system to allow the walk-up guest to load up some money on an RFID wristband and stroll around the village and sample as much or as little of the festival food and drinks (excluding bourbon sampling) as they would like.
The 14th Annual Bacon and Bourbon Festival celebrates fourteen years of being the longest running and bacon-y best festival in the Rockies. The Bacon and Bourbon festival also supports the Colorado mountain community by featuring local businesses, restaurants, and supporting the non-profit Friends of the Dillon Ranger District, the Festival’s beneficiary. For 2025, organizers are excited with the return of another prominent community partner, Climax Molybdenum, who this year is helping to power the entire summer festival series volunteer base. On a national scale, festival bacon is provided by our amazing sponsor Des Moines Bacon Co of Iowa, who has been sharing the love of bacon at this event since its inception in 2011.
“After 14 years we feel confident that we can say we are the best of the west, this has become our motto of sorts for 2025.” says Maja Russer, Director of Events and Marketing for the Keystone Neighbourhood Company. “Years of experience paired with creativity, we make sure that each year of the Bacon Fest is unique and engaging. This year we’re excited for some new, unique merchandise vendors, some new bourbon participants and the return of Harley the Hog, a mechanical pig coming to us from Iowa,” follows Maja Russer.
BUY YOUR TICKETS
The All-Inclusive Festival Ticket Packages start with a $35 Piglet Package for kids (21yrs under) and go up to a $75 Hungry Hog Package. The Hungry Hog package truly is the whole hog with the all-encompassing ticket including tastes from the bourbon tour, 4 different bacon dishes, plus, a 14th anniversary commemorative Bacon Fest trucker hat and two tasty beers. This year’s Festival Samplin’ Swine includes 5 bacon dishes as well as unlimited sampling of bacon strips and a fun new festival bandana. Guests who are not as hungry can purchase individual food samples on site by connecting their bank card to a Keystone Festivals RFID Food & Drink wristband. Saturday’s tickets are selling fast.
LODGING & ACCOMODATIONS
For the past fourteen years, Keystone Bacon and Bourbon Festival has been a must-attend for Coloradoans and visitors alike; this year is no different. Attached is the schedule and visit www.keystonefestivals.com for more information. Lodging accommodations are available throughout the weekend, spend the night and experience all that Keystone Resort has to offer.
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