Dad’s Garage Cuts Out Bacon In Favor Of ‘Big Stupid Parking Lot Carnival’

After 15 years, Dad’s Garage Theatre Company is hanging up its annual BaconFest. In its place, they are hosting a party Saturday that they’re calling the Big Stupid Parking Lot Carnival.

Photo courtesy Dad's Garage Theatre Company

Atlanta’s Dad’s Garage Theatre Company is known for putting on raucous and funny shows and for attracting celebrity guests to improvise with them. Over the years, they’ve also come to be identified with copious amounts of one particular breakfast item: bacon.

But after 15 years, they are hanging up their annual BaconFest and the ton of meat that came with it. In its place, they are hosting a party they’re calling the Big Stupid Parking Lot Carnival.

“We made the switch after looking in the mirror after enough years,” Dad’s artistic director Kevin Gillese tells “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes. “We just thought ‘OK, is this the most responsible way for us to be partying down?’”

In its place, the Big Stupid Parking Lot Carnival is intended to be an amusement park for adults, with the games and absurd booths like “Hobo Wine Tasting” and “Bad Caricatures” from festivals past.

This year, Dad’s is also bringing in rides and an exotic animal petting zoo.

The carnival is the nonprofit theater’s annual fundraiser.

The Big Stupid Parking Lot Carnival takes place at Dad’s Garage Theatre on Saturday, April 6.