Wingapalooza event leads in to Super Bowl with eating, cooking contests

• Wingapalooza 2012

Daily Republic file photo Tim Moon and Molly Goldsmith each choose another wing to chow down on during the 2012 Wingapalooza in Mitchell. Moon emerged as champion after a two-minute eating contest with 17 wings downed.

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• Wingapalooza website

If the first time was saucy, expect the second time to be even saucier.

Mitchell Main Street & Beyond and Time at the Table are teaming up for the second annual Wingapalooza event from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Masonic Temple in Mitchell.

“It’s a really great opportunity for us to be able to work together,” said MMS&B Program Director Molly Goldsmith.

She said the timing, just before Super Bowl Sunday, is perfect.

“It’s kind of a nice lead-in,” she said.

Like last year’s event, Goldsmith said there will be a wing recipe contest, as well as a wing-eating contest. For the taste awards, she said the wings are judged through “people’s choice” and through a judges’ panel, followed by the eating contest at 3 p.m.

For a $5 entry fee, contestants can see how many wings they can down in 90 seconds. The winner will take home a $50 prize.

“I think there’s going to be some interesting recipes,” Goldsmith said.

If chicken wings aren’t appealing enough, Goldsmith said there will be other, non-food attractions. Like this year’s newly added windup chicken races, which Goldsmith said are exactly what they sound like.

“We’ll set up a little race track for some wind-up chickens, and people can cheer for their favorite,” she said.

In keeping with the chicken theme, winners of the hottest wings prize will earn a “bedazzled” rubber chicken, Goldsmith said.

Event organizers want to keep it a fun day, which accounts for the quirky activities and laid-back feel.

“We really enjoyed doing the event last year,” she said. “It was an opportunity for a lot of different kinds of people to come together and try something different.”

Last year’s event drew in more than 250 attendees, and she hopes it grows. Tickets are available at County Fair Food Store, Mitchell Main Street & Beyond or the Wingapalooza website, http://wingapalooza.net. They are $10 for adults, $8 with a student ID (high school or college) or $15 at the door. Elementary-age and younger children are admitted free.

Goldsmith said the tickets grant unlimited wing samples, but drinks are sold separately. Discounted drink cups are $5, or unlimited Wingapalooza cups, which Goldsmith said were “a big thing” last year, are $20. “They’re really cool cups,” she said.

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