A sure sign that summer is on its way is the Peoria Wingfest at Festival Park at the Peoria Riverfront. It’s the event that kicks off all of the Peoria Riverfront summer celebrations and it happened last Sunday.
This year I was invited as a celebrity judge for the festival!
Scroll down to see the highlights of this year’s Peoria Wingfest as we celebrate this 30th week of our 13 month chicken tour!
Judgement Day
I had to be there early (10:45AM) because I was a celebrity judge for this event. Yes, I’m pretty sure a “real celebrity” called in sick, so they asked me, but I was honored anyway!
Here we are at Festival Park on the Peoria Riverfront and right away I ran into Noah and Scott from WWCT. Then I saw a real celebrity, Shelbey S. Roberts from Good Day Central Illinois, always great to see Shelbey and her award-winning smile!
I was told the judging wasn’t going to happen for a few minutes, so I did what any sane person would do at this time of the morning. I high-tailed it over to the beer truck and got a 16 ounce can of Modelo’s! Cheers!
Okay, it’s judgement time! Seated at the judge’s table from left to right are: Shelbey S. Roberts from WMBD/WYZZ, Chef Jonathan Scrivner from Pere Marquette/Table 19, Yours Fooly and Robert Johnson who’s President of the Peoria Park Board.
My buddy Ian Hocker from The Chef and The Baker was another judge who arrived “fashionably late.”
Brittany explained the judging rules and gave us score cards and then the wings were served up and judged.
Afterwards we got Fingerbowl wipes and our judgement duties were done. Find out who the Judge’s Choice winner is as you scroll on down!
Peoria Wingfest 2019
The park is starting to fill up and the lines at the chicken wing vendors are starting to grow.
The Vendors
This year’s chicken wing vendors were:
1. Oliver’s.
2. Ballers.
3. W.E. Sullivans.
4. The Cookery.
5. T-N-T’s Sports Grill.
6. Country Club BBQ.
7. McMahon’s Pints & Plates.
8. Olympia Sports Bar & Grill.
9. Castaways.
10. Macho Taco.
The Crews
Here’s some of the crews that were working hard and serving up chicken wings to a hungry sold-out crowd!
1. Oliver’s.
2. T-N-T’s Sports Grill.
3. Olympia Sports Bar & Grill.
4. Country Club BBQ.
5. The Cookery.
6. McMahon’s Pints & Plates.
7. W.E. Sullivans.
8. Castaways.
9. Macho Taco.
10. Ballers.
Amber, Joe and Adam
I hung out with my friends Amber, Joe and Adam for most of the day. I was full of wings from judging them, so I followed them around and drank beer while they enjoyed the wings from the various vendors.
Dani
Here’s Dani from WWCT who was the person who asked me to be a judge at the Wingfest. You can hear Dani on-air from 10AM till 1PM on WWCT every weekday.
She joined our party and I took off to take pictures of other people at this year’s Wingfest. I hated to abandon our party, but it’s what I do!
Other People At The 2019 Peoria Wingfest
And here are those photos, thanks to all who posed for the MBIP Camera. It was wonderful to see all of your smiling faces!
The Blank Stairs
Two bands entertained the crowd this year and one of them was The Blank Stairs.
The other band was The Bar Stool Heroes and the bands were wonderful, entertaining and they both rocked the festival!
Chicken Wings
The star of the afternoon was the large assortment of chicken wings to be sampled. They were all delicious!
Rain
There was a brief period of rain, but as you can see, people came prepared and it didn’t last long!
Yikes!
While everyone was eating chicken wings, it appears the chicken mascot had eaten a grown man! Motherclucker!
The Awards
1. As the day was coming to a close, they announced the awards and the awards went to:
2. Nacho Taco for the hottest wings.
3. Country Club BBQ for the best BBQ wings.
4. Oliver’s won for the best traditional wings.
5. Castaways won the exotic wings award.
6. And Ballers won the judges choice award.
Congratulations to all of the above award winners!
Best In Show
Oliver’s won the coveted Best In Show award!
Congratulations to Julie and her crew for taking home the top honors from the 2019 Peoria Wingfest!
And another Wingfest comes to a close! Thanks to all of the sponsors, vendors and everyone who put up with me annoying them for photos!
We’ll see you all next summer!
Related Posts: 13 Months of Chicken @: KFC, Donnelly’s Irish Pub, Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, The ‘50’s Diner, Obed & Isaacs, Childers Eatery, Gil’s Supper Club, Highlands Fine Food & Whiskey House, EatandEvolve, Blue Duck Barbecue Tavern, Slim Chickens, Destihl Brewery, Chili’s, Shelton’s, Sky Harbor Steak House, McDonald’s/Chik-fil-A, Bernardi’s Pub, Harold’s Chicken Shack, Lariat Steakhouse, Donnelly’s Irish Pub, Thanh Linh, Grandpa John’s Rib Shack, Birdie’s Bar & Grill, Jalapeno’s Mexican Grill, Midway Duck Inn, Ludy’s Kickapoo Creek Saloon, Jubilee Cafe, Rizzi’s and Agatucci’s.