Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's going to be business in the front and party in the back at Highmark Stadium during Buffalo's 20th Annual Wing Festival. The USA Mullet Championship will have a qualifying round during the festivities.
For the first time ever, the USA Mullet Championship has added a qualifier here in Buffalo and will feature 15 of the finest mullets that Buffalo has to offer, as they take center stage during Buffalo's Wing Festival at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3rd.
“Buffalo is a huge hockey community, which is a sport that has embraced the mullet over the years, what a natural fit for the festival,” said Drew "Wing King" Cerza, founder of the National Buffalo Wing Festival.
Why come to the Wing Festival in Buffalo?
“A superior mullet has many of the same components as a good buffalo wing,” said Kevin Begola, founder and president of the USA Mullet Championships. “Distinct personality, presentation, gusto and the ability to impress those who value aesthetics and fashion. Drew does an amazing job over there and you know, it's pretty cool that it sets up at the Bills stadium."
"This year, we've actually been working with the team over at Major League Eating, who's been helping us do a series of qualifier circuit events like this across the country and so since they're doing the competitive eating, they thought the Mullet Championships would also be a good fit," Begola adds.
The winner of the Buffalo qualifier will receive a nice $500 prize, a pair Pit Viper sunglasses to complete the look and an automatic spot in the elusive 'Top 25,' where the finalists will go on to compete for the top prize of $2,500 and the Oscar-esque Mullet Trophy.
Belonga tells WBEN the criteria they look for in the best mullet, "When we're looking at good mullets, we definitely want to see the shorter hair obviously, in the front. You want it to be shorter in the front and kind of tapered or short on the sides. We like to see that waterfall, like the hair really start right behind the ears. If you were to shave too much of head back, it starts to look like more of like a mohawk. So the difference between a mohawk and a mullet is going to be the hair growing right behind the ears and kind of covering the neck area. Also, another great indicator is if you were to look at somebody straight on and they tuck their mullet into their shirt, or in like a ponytail, if they look serious as heck when you're looking at them, that's a good mullet," said Begola.
Begola says that the origins of this competition started in 2020 with his Men's Specialty Shop, Bridge Street Exchange, "I decided to do kind of a marketing plan where I wanted to have some fun locally in Michigan. We called it the Michigan Mudflap contest. I kicked it off in like January, and in March, when the whole country shut down with COVID, I kind of put it on the back burner and then coming out of all the lockdowns and people getting back to life, we noticed a lot of people hadn't got haircuts and people were pretty bored. So we had 130 people show up in a two week period in my store and that's kind of how the whole idea was created."
These Championships don't just apply to the fellas, the Mullet Championships had just recently concluded their female mullet or 'femullet' competition as well as their kid's competition.
The Top 25 in the men's event, comprised of top 20 contestants who submitted online and the 5 contestants who win the circuit events, will then face off in a five-day fan vote via their website, mulletchamp.com.
"We do take a $10 entry fee for the kids and the the men's open division and with that money we like to give back to charity. So for the kids competition, we were able to donate $3,500 to Maggie's Wigs for Kids here in Michigan. They helped kids who might be battling cancer or have other hair loss issues and they provide a wigs for them. For the men's open, some of the money goes to Stop Soldier Suicide which helps our veterans. We do like to give back along the way and have some fun while we're doing it," says Begola.
The 20th annual Buffalo Wing Festival is this Labor Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, September 3rd and 4th at Highmark Stadium, more information can be found at buffalowing.com.
See the player below to listen to my full interview with Kevin Begola: