On Saturday, pork aficionados will meet up in Des Moines, Iowa, for the fifth annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, billed as America's "premier" bacon celebration.

The event, which sold out all 4,000 tickets in 25 minutes, offers something to make every swine lover swoon: unlimited bacon samples, a bacon-eating contest, educational lectures, a bacon-themed songwriting contest and crowning of a new bacon queen. Organizers plan to serve up about three tons of the fatty strips.

They're...