I got educated at the Wild Hog Festival.

My sisters were in town a couple of weekends ago, and we all took our first trip to the Wild Hog Festival. I’m all about a southern festival, but I have to say that this festival was unlike any other.

I was shocked by the number of people there! We first made our way through the vendors, but we didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without.

As we made our way to the back of the property, we saw a line to enter a separate area. It was what I had been waiting for!

Inside the area was a fenced in part of woods (“the branch” around here!) with spectators piled in all around the outside. There were bleachers and tents and elevated viewing stations. What in the world were they checking out?!

The pig chase!

The pig chase is when tons of kids run wild after a pig, trying to catch him. If you would like some inexpensive yet seriously hilarious entertainment, a pig chase is the place to go! One person told me he drove over an hour to attend!

Just a sample of the fun:

The Chasee for the little ones. Even 3 year olds can participate.

And they’re OFF!

This kid was awesome!

And he got him!

So close!

We saw quite a few spills.

Triple wipeout in the making.

Again!

Umf!

But there were plenty of winners too!

Molly, Linsey, and I were excited to watch the action… Blair was just excited to have a pickle.

The other thing we watched was the baying contest. The hog dogs have to make the hog stand still only by barking at him… no touching him. The people standing next to us were really nice about telling us what was going on. We found out that biters are disqualified.

The hogs were HUGE! One dog got near his hog a couple of times and high tailed it the other way. He never even attempted to bay. People in the audience were chuckling at his frolicking around the pen.

This one below did pretty good with quite a large hog. The dogs are scored on their performance – their ability to “corner” the dog and keep him still. After they keep the hog still for an amount of time, the dogs are called off, and the hog leaves the arena.

It was definitely an educational event for us… and lots of fun to watch!