National Buffalo Wing Festival

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.

National Buffalo Wing Festival
Date(s)	Labor Day weekend, 2–3 September 2023
Frequency	Annual
Location(s)	Highmark Stadium
Years active	22
Inaugurated	2002 (2002)
Attendance	80,000/yr
Organized by	Drew Cerza
Website	buffalowing.com

This festival was inaugurated in 2002 at Sahlen Field. Founder Drew Cerza, called the "Wing King" by Buffalo News, was said to have modeled the event on a fictitious festival from the 2001 movie Osmosis Jones.

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 consumed 191 wings, weighing 7.61 pounds (3.45 kg), 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 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, a popular sport in Buffalo.

 

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.

Contest duration is 12 minutes.

	Date	Name	Chicken wings eaten	Notes
I	9/2/2002	N/A	N/A	Inaugural
II	9/1/2003	Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas	134
III	9/1/2004		161	Event record
IV	9/3/2005	Eric "Badlands" Booker	137
V	9/2/2006	Chip Simpson	158
VI	9/1/2007	Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas	173	Event record
VII	8/30/2008		165
VIII	9/6/2009		169
IX	9/5/2010		181	Event record
X	9/4/2011		183	Event record
XI	9/2/2012	Joey "Jaws" Chestnut	191	Event record
XII	9/1/2013	Miki Sudo	178
XIII	8/31/2014	Joey "Jaws" Chestnut	192	Event record
XIV	9/6/2015		205
XV	9/4/2016		188
XVI	9/3/2017		220	Event record
XVII	9/2/2018		206
XVIII	9/1/2019	Geoff Esper	281	New record.
XIX	9/05/2021	Miki Sudo	246	Women's event record.
XX	9/04/2022		233
XXI	9/03/2023	James Webb	276
XXII	8/31/2024	TBD

• Festivals in Buffalo, New York