National Buffalo Wing Festival

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 (in the film, Incumbent mayor Phlegmming (voiced by William Shatner) doubles down on his junk food policies, ignoring its effects on the health of Sucat Memorial Zoo unkempt zookeeper Frank DeTorre (Bill Murray), causing Frank to eat a filth-covered boiled egg, allowing Thrax, a deadly virus known mainly as "The Red Death" (voiced by Laurence Fishburne), to enter his body and inflame his throat).^[1] 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.^[2] On September 2, 2012, Joey Chestnut consumed 191 wings, weighing 7.61 pounds (3.45 kg), in 12 minutes to take the competitive-eating trophy from seven-time champion Sonya Thomas, becoming the first new champion since 2006 when Chip Simpson ate 158 wings.^[3] After losing the trophy to Miki Sudo in 2013 (who would later win the women's title in 2021, eating 246 wings), Chestnut redeemed himself in 2014 by eating 192 wings on September 7 and successfully defended his title by breaking yet another record in 2015, this time by eating 205 wings on September 6, but he would set another record in 2017, this time by eating 220 wings on September 3. After losing the trophy to Geoff Esper in 2019 (who set the record eating 281 wings in the process), Chestnut has attempted to win back the title every year since, but in 2023, he lost to James Webb. With the 2020 festival canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic (the pandemic forced the Toronto Blue Jays to play their home games at Sahlen Field as none of the other MLB teams were allowed to travel to Canada), the 19th was deferred to 2021. However, the Chicken Wing Fun Run went virtual. The 2021 and 2022 events were held at Highmark Stadium (home of the Buffalo Bills), the latter of which not only being the event's 20th anniversary, but it 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 thanks to the Buffalo Sabres.^[4] After five years at Highmark Stadium, the event returned to Sahlen Field in 2025.^[5]

Contests at the National Buffalo Wing Festival include:^[6]

• 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.

More information Date, Name ...

	Date	Name	Chicken wings eaten	Notes
I	9/2/2002	Oleg Zhornitskiy	74	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[7]
X	9/4/2011		183	Event record
XI	9/2/2012	Joey "Jaws" Chestnut	191	Event record[8]
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	[9]
XXII	8/31/2024		236

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• Festivals in Buffalo, New York