High demand for Iowa State Bacon Expo tickets have left only three tickets available for purchase on Ticketmaster.

With 1,200 tickets going on sale last Friday, Sept. 6, for the Iowa Select Farms and ELANCO ISU Bacon Expo, 1,197 tickets were sold as of 3:40 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8.

Ticket sales opened at 10 a.m. Friday. Within the first hour approximately 800 tickets were sold. By 5 p.m. that day, 938 had been sold. More than 1,000 tickets were purchased by Saturday, Sept. 7.

“I am really excited,” said Kristin Liska, co-chairwoman of the Bacon Expo. “[Tickets] sold better than I ever could’ve thought on Friday. It seems like a lot of people are excited for the event, and we’re excited to put it on for them.”

The event is the nation’s first student-powered Bacon Expo and is primarily geared toward families and ISU students. The number of ISU students who purchased tickets is expected to be higher than that of nonstudents.

“I think students will oversell families and other nonstudents just because of location and how inexpensive it is for them,” said Jackie Luedtke, the logistics co-chairwoman for the Bacon Expo.

Official attendance demographics on the Bacon Expo will not be released until the 1,200 tickets are sold out.

While at the Bacon Expo, attendees have the option of buying a bacon punch card for $10. This punch card allows 10 samples of different bacon; one punch in the punch card means one sample of bacon from a given vendor distributing at the event.

“We want this event to be open to everyone,” said Jake Swanson, the Bacon Expo founder. “We want it to be affordable, especially for students.”

To safely accommodate all the bacon vendors and the Bacon Expo ticket-holders in one area, no more than 1,200 tickets will be sold. But there are other ways for students to obtain tickets once they have sold out. 

By following the Iowa State Bacon Expo on Facebook and Twitter, there is a chance to win one of 300 free tickets through giveaways and raffles.

Tickets have already been given away through raffles from last month’s Destination Iowa State and last week’s ClubFest. Social media giveaways will be available until the day of the Bacon Expo.

While they last, tickets can be purchased online through Ticketmaster for $8 each. They are also available in the box office in Stephens Auditorium.

The Bacon Expo will take place in the courtyard of the Scheman Building on Thursday, Oct. 19, from 1 to 5 p.m.

“The sales speak for themselves,” Luedtke said. “A lot of people are excited about the Bacon Expo, and it’s going to turn out to be a great time.”