Overview The National Buffalo Wing Festival is two days of chicken wings inside Sahlen Field, the Buffalo Bisons' ballpark, and it is the real version of the wing festival Bill Murray's character goes to Buffalo looking for in the 2001 film Osmosis Jones. Wing restaurants from Buffalo and from other states set up stands around the ballpark and sell wings by the order, sauces compete for national awards, and a main stage runs eating contests from late morning to evening on both days. It falls at the end of summer, on or just before Labor Day weekend. On site Gates open off Exchange Street next to the parking garage. In 2026 the festival ran 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 11 to 6 on Sunday, with at least 20 restaurants serving. Wings sell by the single order of ten, and a VIP Party Deck is ticketed separately from general admission. The 2026 main-stage card ran an amateur wing cook-off, a college wing eating contest, a chicken nugget eating contest, Bobbing for Wings, an XXX hot wing contest, an Armed Forces wing eating contest, a baby wing contest, an influencer cook-off and a trivia show, with the National Sauce Awards and a Best of Show ceremony between them. The Buffalo Buffet Bowl closed Saturday night and the Wing It On! USA Wing Eating Championship closed Sunday. Audience People travel for it: the festival counted visitors from 45 states and 24 countries in 2024. Much of the stage card is built for the crowd to enter rather than watch, with separate contests for amateurs, college students, service members and babies, and children 8 and under get in free. Talent and Influencers The U.S. Chicken Wing Eating Championship brings in the professional eating circuit. Joey Chestnut set the event record with 220 wings in 2017, Geoff Esper raised it to 281 in 2019, and Miki Sudo set the women's record of 246 in 2021; Sonya Thomas won the title seven times. Buffalo Bills player Greg Rousseau was booked for an appearance at the 2025 festival, and Spectrum News 1's Casey Bortnick sat on the celebrity judging panel in 2026. Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse have both featured the festival on Food Network. Track record Drew Cerza, known as the Wing King, started the festival in 2002, modeled on the fictional one in the film. It ran at Sahlen Field through 2019, moved to Highmark Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, in 2021 and 2022, and returned to Sahlen Field in 2025, when more than 27,000 people came. The 2026 edition was its 25th, and the festival says it has raised more than $550,000 for local charities since 2002. Its coverage has run from the Today Show, The View and CNN to Travel Channel and a PBS documentary. Brand presence Sponsors sit in presenting, major, event and media tiers, and Empower Federal Credit Union was listed as presenting sponsor on the festival's sponsor page in 2026. Individual contests and nights carry their own sponsors: NYSEG sponsored Armed Forces Night at the 2026 festival.