Two Central Texas men are hoping to open up a can of nostalgia by reviving Spamarama, the annual cook-off and festival that was a quintessentially weird Austin tradition between 1978 and 2007.

The celebration of the canned spiced ham will return July 6 with activities at Moontower Saloon in South Austin, 10212 Manchaca Road, festival founder David Arnsberger said Wednesday. He said he hopes the festival, which brought in more than 14,000 people at its peak in 1998, can become an annual event again.

Arnsberger, now a radio personality for Sun Radio, said Spamarama was a spoof born out of wanting to do something other than a regular chili cook-off. The festival usually had a Spam cooking competition, other Spam entrees, live music and competitive events, such as a race to see who could eat a can of Spam the fastest.

"It's really beautiful to see those pink chunks flying up against the blue sky," Arnsberger said of the Spam tossing contest.

Arnsberger let go of the reins of the festival between 2001 and 2007, because after moving to Colorado in 1998, it became too hard to organize remotely, he said. After returning to Austin in 2005, Arnsberger watched the festival jump from one organizer to the next until it flickered out in 2007.

"It went away," he said. "People have been asking me — oh, two or three times a year, somebody comes to me and says, 'Why don't you do Spamarama again?'"

Josh Bumb, a co-owner of the Moontower Saloon, had that same thought this year.

"I've just always looked for something nostalgic, and Spamarama was just one of those things," Bumb said. He went to one Spamarama event in the mid-1990s.

He called Arnsberger in February and asked him about hosting the Spam-centered event. Bumb said he feels like it's the perfect time to bring back a piece of old Austin and get people interested in that history again.

"He contacted me and I met with him out there, and that is the perfect venue," Arnsberger said of Moontower. He told Bumb, "Let's get our ducks in a row here and we'll make it quack, or oink, I guess."

Bumb and Arnsberger have not nailed down attendance prices or whether special permits will be needed. If weather allows, they plan to start the event at noon and go until dark, with a percentage of the profits made going toward the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, Arnsberger said.

Arnsberger has a trademark agreement with Hormel Foods, which created spam in 1937, that required him to send the company a proof of insurance for venues and copies of all artwork that used "Spam" or "Spamarama," he said. He plans to send Hormel, which is headquartered in Austin, Minn., a letter of announcement with details of his intentions with the revived event.

Bumb and Arnsberger are hoping to give newer Austinites a taste of what this town used to be like through Spamarama.

"Austin has gotten so far away from the term 'weird,'" Arnsberger said. "I feel like I'm giving a gift to the city of Austin. I'm bringing back something that really made this town weird."