Buffalo Wing Festival This Weekend
This weekend is the annual National Buffalo Wing Festival, so up your cholesterol medication and head down to Coca-Coca Field for good eats from over 30 different restaurants in one place.
The festivities begin tomorrow at noon, and besides the opportunity to sample wings from both local and national restaurants, there will also be contests and entertainment. At 1 P.M, there will be the .5 K "running of the chickens," a 500 meter (about 1/3 of a mile) run around Coca-Coca Field. Officials say that while races like these are difficult to predict, "finishing times are projected to be 'several minutes to three-quarters of an hour."
With all those calories you burned, you'll probably be hungry; good thing you're at a wing festival. At 3:30, there will be a "bobbing for wings" contest, in which contestants will attempt to retrieve wings from a humongous bowl of blue cheese using only their mouths. Sounds like this could get messy, but deliciously messy.
If eating with your hands is more your thing, the Amateur Chicken Wing eating contest is for you. At 3:00 P.M. for women and 5:00 P.M for men, dive in and prove to your friends that you can eat more than them. Once amateur hour is over, it's time to let the professionals take over. Sunday will feature the United States Chicken Wing Eating Contest at 4:00 P.M. Several of the eaters you know and love from the much televised National Hot Dog Eating Contest will be in attendance such as Joey Chestnut, defending champion Sonya Thomas, Pat Bertolleti, and Badlands Booker. Our money's on Joey Chestnut, but we'd put money on anyone who could eat over 60 hot dogs.
This festival that started only 10 years ago has quickly grown to international fame. Last year, 71,000 visitors came in from all fifty states as well as 36 different countries, and ate over 500,000 wings. Those numbers are expected to increase as the event continues to grow in popularity.
Check out this quick visual preview of the 2011 Buffalo Wing Festival:
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