It’s time for wing lovers to roll up their sleeves and build up their heat tolerance for the Batesville Bone Collector Hot Wing Eating Contest.
The Batesville Bone Collector contest will take place at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 13 as part of the White River Water Carnival. Contestants are called “gurgitators,” and they will be fighting for the annual title of The Ultimate Gurgitator.
Contest coordinator Adam Curtwright said the hot-wing contest started in 2011 when the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce wanted to incorporate area industry into the carnival.
“We’re heavy on the poultry side, and we decided to showcase our industries that are local,” Curtwright said. “What better way to incorporate something like this than by having people get up on stage and eat products that were made here.”
The hot sauce was developed locally, and Curtwright said it makes the wings very hot. Chick-A-Deal provides the wings, and U.S. Pizza Co. cooks the wings. The owner of U.S. Pizza developed the sauce, and it took a bit of experimentation to make sure the sauce was not too hot.
“When we first tried it, we dipped some bread in it just to get a taste of it, and our lips swelled up,” Curtwright said of the preparation for the first year’s contest. “It hurt. We had a few people eat it and decided we just couldn’t do it, so we toned it back just a little bit. It tastes good, but it’s not something the average person could just sit and eat a bunch of.”
The contest plays out like a dramatized wrestling match, Curtwright said. Gurgitators often come up with stage names, special walk-out songs and costumes for the event. The announcer gets into the competition, and Lyon College students come out to form a human tunnel for contestants to walk through.
“The guy who won last year (and the year before) is Brent Hurst, but he’s known as Brent ‘The Wing King’ Hurst,” Curtwright said. “That’s just as fun as watching them eat it because it’s a show in itself.”
There are 10 gurgitators each year: the previous year’s winner and nine others picked randomly through registration. Gurgitators are given a plate of 20 wings, a carton of milk and a roll of Tums, and they have two minutes on the clock for the contest. During the contest, gurgitators have to keep down all of the meat and must avoid “visible signs of sickness,” or they are disqualified.
Curtwright said the wings are weighed before the contest, and if no one finishes all 20 wings in the two minutes, each plate is re-weighed, and whoever ate the most weight in chicken is declared the Ultimate Gurgitator. Last year, Hurst finished with 20 seconds to spare, Curtwright said.
Aside from bragging rights, the Ultimate Gurgitator gets his or her name on the Batesville Bone Collector Ultimate Gurgitator wrestling-style belt and receives a $500 cash prize.
Registration for the contest ends Friday, and registration forms can be found online at www.whiteriverwatercarnival.com, and at Chick-A-Deal, U.S. Pizza and Centennial Bank locations in Batesville.
Also, this year’s White River Water Carnival will include White River drag boat races, a car show, the Rollin’ on the River parade at Riverside Park, White River’s Got Talent, country artist Maggie Rose and the Afterglow 5K.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.