National Buffalo Wing Festival 2024 in Niagara Falls

The National Buffalo Wing Festival is a great end-of-summer event held during Labor Day weekend in late August-early September. The biggest celebration of chicken wings in the country takes place at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo's suburb of Orchard Park, New York. The major highlight of the festival is the Buffalo Wing eating contest, which has taken place since 2003. The festival draws 50,000-70,000 attendees every year. Over its history, it has served several million wings.

Festival Events

The most famous and beloved attraction of this two-day event is the USA Wing Eating Championship, which has been taking place since 2003. There's no shortage of wing-eating competitions at the festival for those who don't do it professionally. Other events include the Amateur Wing Sauce Off, Amateur Wing-Eating Championship, Hot Wing Eating Contest, Celebrity Influencer Sauce Off, Baby Wing Contest, XXX Hot Wing Eating Contest, andCollege Wing Eating Competition. Buffalo Buffet Bowl is a sprint eating competition, where contestants devour wings, pizza, and roast beef.

To top it all off, you can also participate in other fascinating attractions, like Bobbing for Wings, where you dive head-first into a children's pool filled with cheese dressing in search for wings. Musicians from Buffalo area are ready to entertain the crowd throughout the day. This year, you'll witness performances by Rusty Nickel county rock cover band and other artists.

Schedule & Tickets

The festivities run from 12 pm until 9 pm on Saturday and from 12 pm until 7 pm on Sunday. The USA Wing Eating Championship takes place on Sunday at 5 pm. Admission to the event costs $20. Children under eight years old can enter for free. Food and beverages can be purchased with food tickets, which you buy at food ticket booths.

History of the Festival

Buffalo Wing Fest was founded in 2002 by Drew Cerza, who was often called the "Wing King." The idea of the festival came from the Osmosis Jones movie starring Bill Murray. His character had a goal of attending the National Buffalo Wing Festival—Super Bowl of Junk Food. But ironically, there was no such a festival at that time, so Drew Corza decided to start one.

Wing Eating Contest Records

There have been many records during the festival's wing eating contest. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut is probably the most famous winner, who set a record by eating 220 chicken wings on September 3, 2017. Other famous competitors include Miki Sudo, with a women's event record of 246 wings, and Geoff Esper, who set a new record in 2019 by eating 281 wings.