Northside Festival Brings Sasquatch And Meat Sweats To McCarren Park
Sasquatch runs the Ultimate Meatathon | Photo via Jack Link’s/Amy Sussman

While slowly waking up on a Sunday morning, you might not expect that the day ahead will include racing Sasquatch in McCarren Park. But this past weekend, that was the reality of my Sunday afternoon.

Jack Link’s presented an “Ultimeat Meatathon” fun run in McCarren Park in celebration of the fifth annual National Jerky Day, which they created back in 2012. The obstacle course was next to one of the stages for Northside Music Festival on Saturday and Sunday. The 612-foot course included a climbing wall, jerky punching bags, and a cargo net leading to a platform where you jumped down onto a meat cloud.

With the motto ‘Feed Your Wild Side,’ Jack Link’s definitely let Brooklynites feed their meaty, sporty souls for a fun few minutes of competition. Winners of each race got a medal made of jerky, and everyone got tasty jerky samples to refuel their protein supply. The ultimate prize was a year’s worth of jerky. I clocked in at 2:20, but I think Sasquatch let me win. Props to him for doing an obstacle course all day in that huge furry suit. It was definitely harder than it looked. The top stats are below.

  1. Female: 0:57:20
  2. Male: 0:41.29
  3. Sasquatch: 0:44:54




Northside Festival Brings Sasquatch And Meat Sweats To McCarren Park
Photo via Beth Kaiserman/OurBKSocial

Jack Link’s is the number one meat snack manufacturer worldwide and is based in Minong, Wisconsin. For the third annual National Jerky Day in 2014 they created ‘Meat Rushmore,’ with sculptures made entirely of jerky displayed at Columbus Circle. It seems like a fun company to work for, and it was certainly a jolly break from the hype of Northside Music Festival.

Northside Festival took place June 6-12, with over 100,000 people attending what’s been called “Brooklyn’s SXSW,” with live music and panels on innovation and content throughout Greenpoint and Williamsburg. It was the festival’s eighth year. Music acts ranged from Brian Wilson to Grandmaster Flash to Diet Cig and Colleen Green.