Laramie's Trent Weitzel Defending Title At 2025 National Buffalo Wing Festival

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A loudspeaker blasts out a countdown of the final minutes until the gates open for the crowd of rabid chicken wing fans — some in outrageous costumes — waiting with mouths watering Saturday for the 2025 National Buffalo Wing Festival to open.

People are decked out in equal parts Buffalo Bills paraphernalia, particularly Josh Allen jerseys, or kitschy chicken wing gear as they file into Shalen Field, home of the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons baseball team.

Near the front of the line are childhood friends Michael Lonergan and Richard Zawistowski, who have checked both boxes: Each is wearing a giant, orange drumstick-shaped hat, holding a wing-shaped koozie, and dressed head-to-toe in Bills gear.

With a five-four-three-two-one countdown, the man on the loudspeaker makes one more announcement: “The 2025 National Buffalo Wing Festival is officially underway.”

Festival Fare

As people stream into the ballpark, some can be heard uttering a guttural “ohh, yeah” or, “ooh, I want to try that.”

Those exclamations will be uttered thousands of times this day.

And this is the sort of place that will grant their wildest wing wishes — from the classics to the creative with ingredients that include Fruity Pebbles cereal, peanut butter, pineapple and pickles.

Some make a beeline to specific booths after waiting a year for their favorite wing joint to return, while others wander around until they find a wing that catches their eye.

Lonergan and Zawitowski are doing the latter, walking counterclockwise around the field surveying the options.

About one-third of the way around, they find what will be their first of the dozens of wings they plan to eat Saturday.

While reading aloud the menu options at Archer’s Tavern, which is based in Dayton, Ohio, Lonergan stops at the blackberry and burgundy BBQ option.

“Oooh, I want that,” he says.

After a short wait in line, Lonergan is sinking his teeth into that wing, and in short order he has a review, thoughtful like he’s a New York Times food critic — if he’d stoop to wearing a giant foam chicken wing while doing a review.

“It’s very blackberry-ish, but very tasty,” Lonergan opines.

And with that, the buddies are off to pick up some free swag from vendors that range from a nearby university to a weed dispensary, oblige several photo requests and, of course, eat a lot more wings. 

While some people will express their opinions on the drums versus flats debate with T-shirts, Lonergan doesn’t have much of a preference.

“I like ’em all, I’m not that picky,” he said.

Yup, That Tastes Like A Big Mac

It doesn’t take long for a line to form in front of Weitzel’s Wings, aka Double Dub’s, the Laramie, Wyoming-based Buffalo wing truck that got national attention by being the favorite college nosh for superstar NFL quarterback Josh Allen when he attended the University of Wyoming.

But Double Dub’s and owner Trent Weitzel have earned fame of their own as the three-time defending Festival Favorite winners at the wing fest.

In his industry, that’s like being a three-time defending Super Bowl champ.

His military-themed truck has grown a loyal following he calls the “Dub’s Army,” and there are plenty of willing soldiers eager to try the wings voted the best in the world three times running.

This year he’s featuring his traditional Buffalo-based hot sauces, and a few creative creations that test the imagination.

There’s one he calls the Spicy Vegetable and his special barbecue sauce, which is made with Buffalo, New York’s famous maple syrup. He has it shipped to Wyoming.

There’s one he calls KF Sweet, which is a dessert wing — creamy peach with whipped cream on it.

Then there’s the one his daughter invented, which Weitzel calls the KSS Sauce, which is a Big Mac sauce.

“It hands down tastes like a chicken Big Mac. It has the pickles, the sesame seeds on top, it’s crunchy. It’s just really good,” Weitzel says. “We’re excited to enter some of the newer stuff.”

Weitzel and his Double Dub's team will have to wait until Sunday to learn if they’ll win their fourth straight Festival Favorite award, which he covets because that’s the number of people who come back for the wings they love most.

And he knows that, unlike the first time he was at the festival and was just this small wing truck from 1,500 miles away, now Double Dub’s has the target as the wing everyone else wants to beat.

What Makes for a Good Wing

David Sacilowski and his family are among those who’ve discovered the Wyoming wing king.

Upon entering the ballpark, they headed straight to Double Dub’s.

Sacilowski estimated he eats about 40 wings per month, on average, and the family has been coming to this festival for so many years that his sons are walking around in chicken-themed hats that date back to its early days in the 2000s. 

In addition to a day with the family, Sacilowski is looking forward to trying some new varieties of wings.

While the sauce and spiciness are obviously important, there’s another factor that shouldn’t be overlooked: crispiness.

“A good wing is crispy, that’s one of the main things,” he said.

Sean O’Malley has just finished devouring two wings from Side Biscuit, an Ann Arbor, Michigan, restaurant.

Those wings, Bustaflow and Gucci Gang, were “fantastic,” he said, even if he’s a bit of a Buffalo sauce purist.

What makes for a good wing, in O’Malley’s opinion, is a bit of spice and a wing that’s crispy, but not dry.

As for how many wings are on O’Malley’s plate on Day One?

“Oh man, that’s a loaded question,” he said, before adding that he has two sheets worth of tickets, which would get him 20 wings.

Western Connections

Wyomingites might be surprised by the amount of Wyoming gear at the festival, especially considering a map of festival-goers suggests there are only a few people from the state here.

While Clyde North isn’t a Wyomingite, you might not know it looking at him. The Buffalonian has the UW Cowboys gear he’s wearing, and more at home, because he encouraged his daughter to attend the university. 

When wearing his Wyoming gear around the Buffalo area, North said he meets people all the time who are fellow fans or give him a, “Go Pokes.”

And underneath what’s surely a very hot sasquatch outfit is Chuck Skelly, who grew up in Buffalo but has spent time out West, including studying at the University of Montana.

On game days for the Bills, and at the festival, Skelly is better known as Billsquatch, and he carries a token of his time in the West on his custom Bills jersey: a Montana Grizzlies patch.

This era for the team is perhaps its most exciting, Skelly said, and all because of Allen, who seems like the type of guy who might have grown up around here.

“People have really embraced him,” Skelly said.

Contest Champs

But enough about football, there are 34 tons of chicken wings waiting to be devoured — and some people are really putting a dent into that quantity, thanks to the variety of contests happening nearly every hour of the festival.

Andrew Beglin edged out the competition in the Bobbing for Wings Contest, successfully snagging 20 chicken wings in a kiddie pool filled with Marie’s Dressing bleu cheese while wearing swim goggles. 

It’s both hilarious and slightly nauseating to watch what the festival’s official photographer, who’s been at all 24 events, calls it “the greatest sporting event ever invented.”

Beglin’s strategy?

“I was trying to keep my head in as long as possible,” Beglin said, still dripping with the condiment minutes after the contest concluded. 

This isn’t the sort of thing Beglin has done before, but he had a mischievous goal: to embarrass his teenaged daughter.

But it’s not the first rodeo for Craig Healy, who was crowned winner of the XXX Hot Wing Eating Contest. The Philadelphia man quickly devoured 25 wings Saturday to take home his fourth title at this festival.

It helps that Healy loves hot stuff, but some half-and-half helps with these sorts of contests.

“I have to let it settle,” he said, gesturing to his stomach. 

Still, Healy plans to return Sunday to enjoy some of the festival’s fare. “We’ve been coming here for so long, it’s great.”

The Wing King

It’s getting late in the day and Drew Cerza, the man who came up with this crazy idea for a Buffalo wing festival, has found a few minutes to sit down and eat a pizza.

Yes, the man better known around these parts as the Wing King is eating pizza — at the National Buffalo Wing Festival.

“I gotta get some carbs,” he said.

After four years at Highmark Stadium, home of the Bills, the festival has returned to Sahlen Field, which is a much better set-up for everyone involved, Cerza said.

Day One was a great start, and Cerza is excited to see that every state but two are represented on a map showing where festival goers are from.

He’ll be summoned shortly to preside over something at the main stage, but the weather is perfect and everyone is in a great mood.

“It’s so awesome,” Cerza said.

 Anna-Louise Jackson can be reached at: jackson.anna@gmail.com