World's Largest Brat Fest announces bands, meat-gluttony goals for 2010

The vernal equinox may have come and gone, but The A.V. Club knows better than to trust the Earth’s position relative to the Sun to tell us when spring really begins. Which is why the mounting preparations for the annual World’s Largest Brat Fest (Fri., May 28 to Sun., May 31 at the Alliant Energy Center) should have everyone in town strapping up their Tevas and sloshing their beer alfresco, as Madison gears up to welcome the year's nicest weather conditions by assaulting the sky with pork fumes. This year’s veritable sausage fest will have its usual slate of Madison bands and fundraisers for local charities. But brat-mathematicians will also be on hand to tabulate various wurst stats: According to the event’s Facebook page, last year’s festival-goers inhaled 208,752 brats at an artery-sealing BCM (that’s brats consumed per minute, obviously) of 98.7. A brat will only run you $1.50, but before the weekend’s through, you might want to figure a gastric bypass into the budget. The Facebook page has also been releasing a constant stream of mostly local artists (ranging from disco goofballs VO5 to singer-songwriter John Statz) due to soundtrack all this consumption. We'd especially recommend the "brats 'n' blues" installment on Saturday evening, by which time those encased meats will most definitely have done us wrong.