Wingfest, the world’s largest chicken wing festival, comes to Sheffield this week. Forge Warehouse will host the event, which will take place from the 17th to the 19th of October, where both local and national vendors compete to have the best chicken wings.

This is the second year that Wingfest has visited Sheffield, the first being in 2024 as part of the 10th anniversary of the festival.

Wingfest’s impact extends beyond just wings. It’s become one of the biggest food festivals in Sheffield, with thousands of visitors and over 60,000 wings being sold over the weekend. It’s an opportunity for local businesses to gain exposure and connect with other vendors.

One such restaurant is Unit, a local, independent, American diner who competed in Wingfest last year. The restaurant was set up in Sheffield 8 years ago, but Wingfest was their first ever festival.

Salim Algunaidi, Manager of Unit, said: “We’ve been looking at various ways to try and promote the brand while being independent, and we got in touch with so many different people.

“Wingfest got in touch, and they said that they were coming to Sheffield. We connected with their marketing team, told them we’ve got some ideas and got it all set up.

“We were extremely excited because they said that it was another opportunity for us to showcase the brand, and then build the following. We wanted to show what we were about.”

Salim said that they sold over 15,000 wings over the course of the weekend, and said that there were several days of preparation needed beforehand.

“There’s quite a lot of preparation to be done in terms of the store set up, getting the hygiene certification, and getting the team all set up for it.

“There was a lot of time and effort put into setting it up, but we got to work with people that were experienced. Wingfest have done this for quite a long time, they managed to help us, as well as some of the other people who were there.”

Since competing in Wingfest, Unit has seen an increase in sales and has opened up another location at Cambridge Street, but also became more connected with other businesses, both locally and nationally.

“It inspired us to keep doing what we’re doing but try and get involved locally as much as possible.

“We’ve met people from across other towns and cities, but that gave us a little bit of a taste of what it’s like to do what we’re doing. So they got to help us, we got to help them.”

With Wingfest returning for a second year, it’s another opportunity for the culinary community to come together in the Steel City