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At least five local restaurants are ready to put their chicken wings to the test at the second annual Wingfest Saturday at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market in Colfax.

A fundraiser for Arc of High Point, Wingfest crowns restaurants winners of best hot wings, best barbecue wing, best sweet wing, most exotic wing in the Triad and overall winner.

New this year is a people’s choice award, chosen by festival guests.

Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery of High Point won several categories last year.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Russ Hildebrand, general manager of Liberty, said about the upcoming competition.

Although the restaurant walked away with three of the five awards last year, Liberty isn’t taking any chances.

“We hope to defend our title this year,” Hildebrand said. “We’ve got a few surprises, but we’re going to stick with what works. We didn’t win two (of the categories) last year, so we had to do something about it.”

Also returning are Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar of High Point and J.P. Looney’s on Samet Drive and East Coast Wings.
Newcomer Buffalo Wings and Rings of Greensboro will also offer up their best wings.

Admission is free, but people who attend must purchase $1 tickets for drinks and food or to sample the wings and judge in the people’s choice award.

The festival will also feature contests and entertainment.

“Lord of the Wings” is the annual amateur eating contest. “It was really hilarious last year,” said Teresa McKeon, director of Arc.

The entry fee is $5, and the winner of the contest will receive $50 and a “Lord of the Wings” medal.

The other two contests are the “Baby Chick Crawl,” a diaper derby, and the “Best Clucker.”

Entertainment will include Warner Bros. recording artist Jason Jones, Katelyn Marks of Winston-Salem and Jeff Crawford. Talent Search TV will also showcase local performers.

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth. seagraves@news-record.com