It's a Wing Festival, Not an Eating Contest
Drew Cerza deserves congratulations for another successful National Buffalo Wing Festival; maybe someone should have reminded too much of the media that it wasn't a mindless eating contest.
Cerza and the other volunteers and organizers who have worked with him to make the National Buffalo Wing Festival not only a large, successful event but one growing in size and notoriety, not only here in Buffalo/Western New York but nationally, chose to include a chicken wing eating contest as part of the festival, but only a part. For the broadcast and print media to concentrate so much on the wing eating contest, and ignoring much of the rest of the festival, is ridiculous. This is particularly true after some media previously lauded Cerza and the festival for its positive effects on the economic health of Buffalo and its national reputation, but this time totally missing the point for a cheap, exploitative "flashy" news bite.
If you cant tell, I both hate food eating contests and believe Cerza is doing a fine job with the National Buffalo Wing Festival.
Cerza and the other volunteers and organizers who have worked with him to make the National Buffalo Wing Festival not only a large, successful event but one growing in size and notoriety, not only here in Buffalo/Western New York but nationally, chose to include a chicken wing eating contest as part of the festival, but only a part. For the broadcast and print media to concentrate so much on the wing eating contest, and ignoring much of the rest of the festival, is ridiculous. This is particularly true after some media previously lauded Cerza and the festival for its positive effects on the economic health of Buffalo and its national reputation, but this time totally missing the point for a cheap, exploitative "flashy" news bite.
If you cant tell, I both hate food eating contests and believe Cerza is doing a fine job with the National Buffalo Wing Festival.
posted by Kevin J. Hosey at 11:50 PM
3 Comments:
Kevin,
I couldn't agree with you more, with reference to Drew Cerza and the growth of the Festival. Don't be too harsh on the media though. Competitive eating continues to grow in popularity. Sonya and the other eaters have become something of an International phenom. This in and of itself, draws lots of attention to the Festival and drives year round traffic to it's website. (www.buffalowing.com)
That translates into heightened Festival awareness for all Festival events, not just eating. It also shines a light on all of the good that the Festival does for local charities and serves too, as a vehicle for year round promotion, for the City of Buffalo and all of Western NY.
Let's hear it for the media!
All the best,
Stan Friedman, Chairman
National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame
I am glad that the media coverage helped bring more people to the National Buffalo Wing Festival and helped it raise more money for charities, Stan, but if it was just a wing eating contest, I would have little interest in it.
But due to my love of chicken wings and admiration for what Mr. Cerza, you and others are doing with the festival, I guess I can tolerate the wing eating contests and barely tolerate the media overindulgence in this activity as long as the Wing Festival comes out on top.
But frankly, I can't stand food eating contests, and see them as self-indulgent and narcissistic, and with so many people poor and without enough to eat, even in the U.S., a bit insulting.
I see your point Kevin and agree that there's more to the festival than just the eating contests. Lots more. In fact, all of the eating competitions combined, probably amounted to less than 1 hour of programming, during this 17 hour extravaganza. On balance, that's like a drop of water in the ocean. Keep your chin up Kevin and let's make next year's Wing Fest the best ever!
Stan Friedman, Chairman
National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame
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