National Buffalo Wing Festival or Wing Fest is a weekend festival held on
Labor Day weekend at
Highmark Stadium in
Orchard Park,
New York, United States, celebrating the Buffalo style
chicken wing
Chicken wing(s) or chickenwing may refer to:
* Chicken wings
* Chicken wings as food
** Buffalo wing, a popular way of preparing chicken wings
Other
*Chicken wing, a defensive shot in pickleball
Pickleball is an indoor or outdoor racket/pa ...
. The festival culminates with the
IFOCE sanctioned Buffalo Wing
eating contest, which has taken place the Sunday of the festival since 2003, except 2020 when it was canceled.
Event history
This festival was inaugurated in 2002 at
Sahlen Field
Sahlen Field is a baseball park in Buffalo, New York, United States. Originally known as Pilot Field, the venue has since been named Downtown Ballpark, North AmeriCare Park, Dunn Tire Park, and Coca-Cola Field. Home to the Buffalo Bisons of the ...
. Founder Drew Cerza, called the "Wing King" by ''
Buffalo News
''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...
,'' was said to have modeled the event on a fictitious festival from the 2001 movie ''
Osmosis Jones
''Osmosis Jones'' is a 2001 American live-action/animated buddy cop crime action comedy film written by Marc Hyman. Combining live-action sequences directed by the Farrelly brothers and animation directed by Piet Kroon and Tom Sito, the film ...
.''
Jill Greenburg said, "Of local festivals that have come and gone, the Wing Fest's staying power is a result of raising approximately $200,000 for local charities and serving almost 3,000,000 chicken wings with 100 sauce varieties to over 500,000 hungry visitors over the years." In 2010, the festival was video webcast live to over 84,000 online viewers.
On September 2, 2012,
Joey Chestnut
Joseph Christian Chestnut (born November 25, 1983) is an American competitive eater. As of 2022, he is ranked first in the world by Major League Eating. He is a California native and resides in Westfield, Indiana. Chestnut's height is ; his weigh ...
consumed 191 wings, weighing , in 12 minutes to take competitive-eating trophy from seven-time champion
Sonya Thomas, becoming the first new champion since 2006. After losing to
Miki Sudo in 2013, Chestnut returned to his winning ways in 2014 by breaking his own record by eating 192 wings and successfully defended his title the next year by breaking yet another record, this time eating 205 wings on September 6, 2015. Two years later, he set another record, this time of 220 wings on September 3, 2017. Geoff Esper holds the record of 281 in 2019.
With the 2020 festival canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, the 19th was deferred to 2021. However, the Chicken Wing Fun Run went virtual. The 2021 event was held at
Highmark Stadium, to which the festival returned in 2022. The 2022 festival also added a qualifying event for the USA
Mullet Championships, which Cerza found to be a fitting synergy given the haircut's popularity in
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
, a popular sport in Buffalo.
Event contests
Contests at the National Buffalo Wing Festival include:
*US Chicken Wing Eating Championship
*Amateur Chicken Wing Eating
*Amateur Traditional Sauce Contest
*Amateur Creative Sauce Contest
*Ridiculously Hot Wing Eating Contest
*Miss Buffalo Wing
*Bobbing for Wings
*Baby Wing
*Buffalo Buffet Bowl
*
Yancey's Fancy Cheesiest Couple Contest
*
Yancey's Fancy Cheesy Dance-Off Contest
*Battle of the Border
*College Wing Eating Competition
*Chicken Wing 5K (3.107 mi.) Run, since 2016.
US chicken wing eating championship competition winners
Contest duration is 12 minutes.
See also
*
Festivals in Buffalo, New York
References
External links
Official Website
{{Culture of Buffalo, New York
Festivals in Buffalo, New York
Economy of Buffalo, New York
Festivals established in 2002
Competitions in the United States
Competitive eating
2002 establishments in New York (state)