KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE)- The 10th Annual Big Kahuna Wing Festival at Worlds Fair Park wrapped up Sunday night, ending in a beautiful firework show.

Tents lined the park with vendors serving up their best wings. The wings were the main event, but thousands came out to Worlds Fair Park also enjoy live music and drinks as well.

“I came for these chicken wings,” Kody Lee Wallace said with a plate in his hand,

His dad Kurt Wallace said, “Right now I got Chipotle, a spicy hot, and some off BBQ honey something. I’m not for sure.”

Kody added, “So far the lemon pepper, that’s my top favorite right now.”

The festival brought wing fans from far and wide. Cedric Jackson and his wife came from Atlanta to Knoxville just for this event.

“We were just online looking for something to do for the weekend, for the holiday,” Jackson said.

He said his pick for the best kind of wings was, “I got some lemon pepper from the 2021 Winner a couple of years ago and they were really good, they were really really good.”

However, the real winners are the organizations benefiting from this event.

The proceeds that were raised at the festival will go to the Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital’s Mental Initiative, and the UT Culinary “Food For Vols” program, which collects and distributes meals to those with food insecurity through UT’s Culinary Institute’s “The Big Orange Pantry.”

In the past, the Big Kahuna Wing Festival has raised nearly half a million dollars for charities in East Tennessee.

Once Kurt learned about where some of the money was going, he said,  “I think that’s amazing. That’s why I’m going to spend more money just to donate.”

Kody said he saw the event on Facebook originally and had to come see what it was all about himself. His conclusion?

“Some great chicken wings, great beer, and great people.”

He says he’ll be back next year.