Knoxville will feel the heat this summer as the 11th Annual Big Kahuna Wing Festival (BKWF) fills Downtown Knoxville with the tantalizing, alluring aroma of hot wings on the barbie on Sunday, September 1, 2024 from 3:00PM until 9:00PM.
What you Need to Know
BOOTH SPACE INFORMATION: Booths are allocated in 10′ x 10 units.
WHERE: The charity event will be held at the Worlds Fair Park Festival and Performance Lawns located in between the Sunsphere and 11th Street. With teams from near and far vying to take home the $5,000 Grand Prize and “Tennessee’s Best Wings-2024” bragging rights.
HOW MUCH: The fee to participate in the contest varies per team based on whether you are cooking wings or saucing only (the entry deadline is August 1, 2024). We also require you provide a $100 clean up deposit which will be returned as your team checks out.
HOW TO APPLY: To compete you must first read and accept our competition rules and regulations. Then complete the cooking team application.
JUDGING: Each contestant will be judged through a blind judging process provided by World Food Championships E.A.T. judging. This is designed to guarantee fairness to all the competitors. The rulings of the judges are final. If you are a E.A.T. judge and want to be one of our judges, please click here.
PRIZES: In addition to bragging rights, we will award prize money and a trophy to the top scoring teams as determined by our judges in each of the following categories.
- $5,000 – Overall Big Kahuna Champion!
- $1,000 – Smoker Division Champion
- $1,000 – Exotic Sauce Champion
- $1,000 – Creative Spicy Champion
- $1,000 – Creative Sweet Champion
A trophy or plaque will be presented to the team who wins the “Rookie of the Year” Award. The award will be based on the rookie team which has the highest scoring in the competition.
Day of the Event
- Load in: August 30, 4:00 PM-8:00 PM, and September 1st, 8:00 AM-10:00 AM. No vehicles will be allowed on the lawns the day of the event.
- Gates Open: 2 PM for VIP and 3 PM for General Admission
- Judging: Beginning at 12:00 PM
- Winners Results Announced: 8:30 PM
- Load out: After Fireworks presentation, around 9:30 PM
Judging
There will be several “panels” of judges to make sure each competitor is judged fairly and timely.
Each panel will consist of 5 judges, and all judges will sample.
Cooks will be required to provide 2 wings per category* for each judge in their panel.
So as to not interfere with public sampling, judges will come to the backside of each tent at the designated judging time to judge the competition entries. Competitors need to make sure they have a table set up in this area for their entries.
Competitors must label each category entry as follows: Category Title (i.e., Creative Spicy), Title of Dish (i.e., Willy’s Blackberry Habanero Buffalo Wings); Brief Description (i.e., A sweet heat wet wing sauced with organic blackberry jam and finished off with a habanero infusion.)
Labels will be provided during the onsite Cook’s Meeting
Categories include:
Buffalo / Overall
Smoker Division
Exotic
Creative Spicy
Creative Sweet
*Cooks have the option to compete in each category, but they are not required to compete in all of them.
*It’s possible for competitors to win more than one category. However, winners will only be awarded one Golden Ticket entry into the World Food Championships per win.
Additional Team Requirements and Disclosures
Each item is required to supply all the items for the cooking of wings and general materials needed for their booth.
SAFETY IS IMPORTANT TO US! However, each team is liable for any bodily or other harm as a direct result of negligence on the part of that team. In submitting your application, you will be acknowledging and accepting these terms and indemnifying the Big Kahuna Wing Festival Group of any and all liability resulting from such negligence.
Thank you for your cooperation and good luck! – If you agree to our terms and conditions of entry then click here to register.