The world’s biggest chicken wing festival is coming back to Manchester this weekend, bringing some of the UK’s best street food traders with it.
Moving into the Trafford Centre for 2022, on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September Wingfest traders are gearing up to serve a whopping 200,000 wings over a two-day period.
Playing host to chicken aficionados from near and far, the event will hold a number of cooking demos and eating competitions over the coming weekend, including a famous hot wing challenge so brutal participants are required to sign a waiver in advance.
Food and drink
Image: Wingfest
Image: Wingfest
This weekend, you’ll find 20 different street food traders, restaurants, BBQ teams and pop-ups from across the country serving up their signature bites at Wingfest – be they deep-fried, spicy, baked, sweet or sticky as all hell.
All wings are priced at £1.25, and will be sold in individual joints to allow voters to try as many wings as possible from each of the traders who will accept both cash and card.
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Elsewhere, you’ll find bars selling different bourbons and beers. Please note, all bars at the event will be card only.
Water refill points will be available on site, and allergen information will be available from the traders on the day.
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Competitions
Image: Wingfest
Image: Wingfest
The UK’s finest chicken experts will be showcasing their culinary skills by means of cooking demos and a festival-wide competition – all bidding to be crowned the Wing King or Queen.
This year’s trader competition is split into two categories: The Best Buffalo Wing and The Best Wild Wing.
The first, rather self-explanatorily, will see food traders battle to have their spicy sauce crowned the best, whilst the wild category will encourage chefs to let their creativity run wild with different flavours and toppings.
In total, 8,000 lucky chicken wing fans will have the opportunity to cast their vote for their favourite wings across the weekend.
True wing aficionados should also consider taking part in the very saucy wing eating competition, where brave and hungry individuals compete against one another on the main stage to see who can eat the messiest wings.
The ‘Get Heated’ lava wing challenge hosted by, The Food Review Club and Clifton Chilli Club will be causing carnage, with only the brave entering the UK’s hottest wing challenge.
Ticket holders can sign up to take part on the day,announcements will be made from the main stage when the sign up is open.
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Entertainment
Image: Wingfest
Image: Wingfest
Alongside a range of different traders to sample, cooking demos to visit and eating competitions to watch, there will also be axe-throwing stations, fairground rides and live music on hand throughout the weekend to set the party atmosphere.
Manchester Wing Fest-goers can dance along to killer DJs, live blues and brass bands, with a chicken wing in each hand, as the festival stretches late into the night.
Read more: The world’s biggest chicken wing festival is coming back to Manchester
How to get tickets
Taking place across Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September 2022, those heading down can expect a day full of chicken-eating, as well as plenty of music and entertainment. Tickets are priced from £20 and can be purchased here. Saturday tickets are sold out but there are still tickets available for Sunday.
Feature image – Wing Fest
News
FIFA confirm new changes to international breaks – and many fans are divided
Danny Jones
Global sporting body FIFA have announced new changes to the annual football calendar and the ever-divisive international breaks, specifically.
It’s fair to say that not everyone is in agreement over the update to what many fans and even players already find a frustrating format.
Put simply, FIFA have revealed that they will be merging the traditional September and October breaks into one extended period of international football from 2026 onwards.
Once again, although the decision has been met with plenty of support, it has also faced just as much, if not potentially even more, resistance.
That's well better. Always thought instead of having 3 short international breaks in autumn we'd be better off having one long one
As detailed by multiple outlets following full confirmation on Monday, 13 September, footy fans are now looking at a combined 16 days of watching national teams in World Cup qualifiers and other fixtures.
While other clubs further down the footballing pyramid will still be able to watch their team, supporters of Premier League sides and several other divisions will see domestic action cease for roughly three weeks when taking into account rest days between international and club fixtures
Besides incorporating more teams into this year’s World Cup (now a 48-team affair) and the still relatively recent advent of the Nations League – which UEFA introduced in the hopes of creating more interest in the much-maligned international breaks – this is one of the biggest changes in some time.
At present, there are typically four breaks: September, October, November and March/April – not including major tournaments themselves.
One criticism of this format has been the stop-start consequence it has on club football, and indeed, struggling to create any real momentum and/or excitement, as well as the impact on form it sometimes has on players both away on national team duty and when they get back to their clubs.
I suppose it’s better than having two different breaks in Sept and the October, and the stop start nature of the club season.
Another big concern these breaks have always been met with is the added risk of fatigue and injury.
Despite being athletes who regularly train to remain at the peak of their physical fitness, the increasingly congested fixture calendar – particularly for those playing in England, with multiple cup competitions, the prospect of European football AND no break over Christmas – continues to push bodies to the limit.
Once again, these new changes to international breaks won’t come into effect until next year, but there are plenty of pros and cons that professionals and supporters alike will continue to debate until the new schedule is implemented.
Family pay tribute to ‘loyal’ son who was killed in a stabbing in Moss Side
Emily Sergeant
The family of a 15-year-old boy who lost his life in a stabbing in Moss Side this week have paid a touching tribute to him.
The boy has also formally been named as Mohanad Abdullaahi Goobe.
Mohanad was described as having an ‘uncanny ability’ to make you laugh in his family’s emotional tribute, as shared with the public.
The family’s statement reads: “Mohanad was the baby of the family, he was quick to laugh, easy to love, with a ready smile. Our son had an uncanny ability to make you laugh, making it sometimes difficult to be serious with him. He had many friends, he was loyal and often played the class clown, simply to see them laugh.
#TRIBUTE | Following the death of a teenage boy on Monton Street in Manchester yesterday (15 September), we are now able to name him as 15-year-old Mohanad Abdullaahi Goobe.
“Mohanad’s life has been cut tragically short, it is difficult to comprehend that seeing your son head off for school in the morning, would be the last time that we would see that handsome face.
“Mohanad deserves to be remembered for the young man who was loved by his family, and loved big in return, not as the boy whose life was taken with no thought or reason.
“We will not allow his name to be known as yet another statistic in the rise of knife crime.”
Tributes come after officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were called out to reports of a ‘disturbance’ involving a number of people on Monton Street in Moss Side at just after 4:30pm on Monday (15 September), and when they arrived on the scene, they found a 15-year-old boy with serious stab wounds.
#ARREST | Following our earlier update, a 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody.
This arrest comes after the death of another 15-year-old boy on Monton Street, Moss Side yesterday (15 September 2025).
After being treated both at the scene and later in hospital, the boy was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A murder investigation was subsequently launched, and another teenager, also a 15-year-old boy, was then arrested on suspicion of murder yesterday (16 September).
Anyone with any information, or who may have been in the area at the time of the incident, is urged to contact GMP on 101 or online, quoting log 2327 of 15/09/25.
You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Georgina Pellant -
21st September 2022 
