19/08/2025
The people of London certainly love their wings, and the return of Wingfest brought the inevitable hype and excitement this year. Thousands of chicken lovers flocked to the Olympic Stadium in London for a weekend full of fun, food and cocktails from Friday 25th July – Sunday 27th July 2025.
Entry was quick and seamless, with all attendees being gifted a free trucker hat of choice as part of their ticket, which was a nice touch. On entry you were welcomed by the unmistakable smell of chicken wings, the sounds of the booming music coming from the bars, alongside the hustle and bustle of the expectant crowd.
Featuring 45 chicken wing outlets, each pricing their wing at £1.50 there was something for everyone – sweet, spicy, large, small, saucy, dried, fried, baked and so much more – you were in for a culinary adventure. Throughout the day you were able to vote in three categories for the best wings. The categories were ‘Best Buffalo Wing’, ‘Best BBQ Wing’, and ‘Best Wild Wing’. This public vote was alongside the judging panel including Michelin star chef Andy Beynon, Natty Can Cook, Judy Joo and Tim Shropshire.
Our aim was to try a minimum of 20 wings and we ended up over that! Plus we finished off with an ice cream, to satisfy our sweet tooth. As you’d expect, there were some weird and wonderful wings to choose from, with queues varying between traders. We found the key was to have wings and/or drinks in hand as you queue up for the next round of chicken. Also being in a group of three we were able to send each other off to ‘divide and conquer’.
If I went through and described each wing you’d be reading for a while… so here are some of our key highlights! I’d give a shout out to Fowl for their wing/doughnut combination, and Wingman’s who delivered a delicious and succulent buffalo wing. I’d also commend Peck Peck on trying to create the espresso martini wing, but the combination wasn’t to my palette. Gurt Wings were surprisingly disappointing for me after high expectations. We found them salty above any other flavour, albeit succulent.
The Rub also delivered some very aesthetically pleasing and tasty wings. We also wanted to try those with less queues and ended up stumbling on Kell’s Kitchen (which *SPOILER ALERT* ended up winning the ‘Best BBQ Wing’ category). Other winners were Wingmans for the ‘Best Buffalo Wing’ and Kiki’s Fried Chicken for the Best Wild Wing’.
As well as the chicken wings, there were DJs, live music, rides, games and axe throwing, as well as the highly anticipated eating competitions. A nice bit of variety as you make your way though the festival, although I failed at most of them. I then stuck to the cocktails and beers, which may have been my downfall in the first place. All in all, a very nice day out.
Known as the world’s largest chicken wing festival, there was certainly enough to scratch the itch of even the pickiest chicken wing lover. Less queues would always be the preference, but it’s hard to control when there’s so much demand for tickets (and we also went at the busiest time on a Saturday afternoon). The Festival for You team is super excited for the 2026 line-up of chicken wing traders!