National Buffalo Wing Festival

Wing King Drew Cerza has announced that the U.S. Buffalo Wing-Eating Championship will be held at the fourth annual National Buffalo Wing Festival on Labor Day Weekend at Dunn Tire Park in Buffalo, NY, home of the chicken wing.

This year, the three-year-old festival will proudly serve its one millionth chicken wing.

The eating event is open to rookie and veteran eaters from throughout the nation and is likely to attract top gurgitators such as Badlands Booker, Jim Reeves, Sonya Thomas, Eater X Janus, Allen Goldstein and Oleg Zhornitskiy.

Thomas, the top-ranked American eater who is known as “The Black Widow,” has vowed to return to defend her title. She has issued a standing invite for Bill Simmons to attend the event for a wing re-match. Simmons beat Thomas in what some have said was a controversial call in Philadelphia's WingBowl.

Thomas, who holds titles in oysters, hard-boiled eggs and cheesecake, consumed 37 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes at Nathan's this year.

Other likely top competitors is corn-on-the-cob eating veteran Joe LaRue of Florida and butter champion Don “Moses” Lerman. Buffalo’s own Jim Reeves, a multi-discipline eater and local favorite, will come to the event after a strong 2005 season.

The 12-minute, all-you-can-eat contest will be sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. This is an IFOCE event and the IFOCE will handle all registration through ifoce.com. Participants must be 18 years of age or older.

The 4th Annual National Buffalo Wing Festival, which will be held at on Labor Day weekend, is expected to draw more than 50,000 chicken wing aficionados to the City of Buffalo. The festival will feature the America’s Best Wings competition as well as the Mega Car and Truck Show, Baby Wing Contest, Miss Buffalo Wing Pageant and the official Running of the Chickens. Attendees will also have the opportunity to try more than 100 different varieties of Buffalo wings from eateries across the nation.

For more info visit www.buffalowing.com