The National Buffalo Wing Festival is a great end-of-summer event held during Labor Day weekend in early September. The biggest celebration of chicken wings in the country takes place at Coca-Cola Field (Sahlen Field) in downtown Buffalo, 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.
Buffalo Wing Fest was founded in 2002 by Drew Cerza, who was often called the "Wing King". The idea of the festival came from 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.
There have been many records during the festival's wing eating contest. Sonya Thomas is probably the most famous winner who set a record eating 220 chicken wings on September 3, 2017. Other events of the festival include Amateur Traditional Sauce Contest, Amateur Creative Sauce Contest, Ridiculously Hot Wing Eating Contest, Miss Buffalo Wing Contest, Yancey's Fancy Cheesiest Couple Contest, College Wing Eating Competition and the Chicken Wing 5K Run (3 mi). There is also a Buffalo Ninja Warrior Challenge fun obstacle run.
