Buffalo, NY (WBEN) After the pandemic forced last year's cancellation, the National Buffalo Wing Festival is a firm go for 2020. Like most other events, there will be some changes.
The Wing King Drew Cerza says admission in 2021 will be a bit downsized. "We will break it up into timed, pre-ticketed sessions. On Saturday, Sept. 4th, there will be (3) three hour sessions. On Sunday, Sept. 5th there will be (2) three hour sessions," says Cerza. He adds all admission tickets will be prepaid online. Cerza hopes outdoor large gathering capacity allowed by the state will increase to 5,000 people, allowing a total of 25,000 tickets to be sold.
Another challenge, says Cerza, is getting enough wings. "I will need 25 tons of wings and that's not easy to come by with a chicken wing shortage, but we're working on it," says Cerza. "Right now, chicken wings are treated like lobster, they're market price. Who knows what that price will be, but that's why we don't know what the admission or wing prices will be. But hopefully, it will get easier by then," noting the event is roughly four months away. Nevertheless, Cerza says restaurants are clamoring to come back. "I've got some really good commitments from restaurants already to travel in from out of town," notes Cerza.
Cerza says music by local bands will be added to the entire festival. "I think we're going to open up and have live music and bands play continuously during the festival. They haven't been able to play since the pandemic so I'd like to give them an opportunity to showcase themselves to people in Western New York," says Cerza.
There is one other dilemma. What if the Blue Jays have a Labor Day weekend home stand and still have to play at Sahlen Field? "We're hoping the Blue Jays go back to Canada and have the borders open so the American teams can play in Toronto. We're going to have to look at secondary locations just in case we have to relocate," says Cerza, who hopes it doesn't reach that point.
