Chicken Wings and X-wings Fly Into Chicago

Chicago WingFest flew back into Chicago for one day with thousands of wings to sample. This was the 20th anniversary for WingFest at 525 S. Racine Avenue with attendance bigger than ever. Metal detectors at the entrance now slow things down so plan ahead when planning for next year.

Some of the standouts this year included The Hotwing Joint, Q's Tips & Wings and Porto's Peri Peri.

To wash it down there was Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch and Red Bull among other drinks.

Hooter's had some of my favorite wings with locations at both side of the arena in the VIP area. Chicago Fire's Miranda Rae Mayo hosted the wing eating contest and an after party was held at 551 Live.

Check out WingFest.net for the winner's of this year's festival when announced.

The same weekend a Star Wars Celebration landed at McCormick Place with a longer run from April 11-15. The fans seemed ravenous for every bit of Star Wars merchandise and information they could find.

It was the first convention to reveal the title of the Star Wars sage movie with The Rise of Skywalker.

A live action Star Wars TV show called The Mandalorian was also revealed.

Not only were there opportunities to meet stars for photo ops and autographs, but many of the fans were dressed up for the occasion. Stormtroopers as well as Ahsoka Tano were both popular costumes among patrons.

At times it was a test in patience as line for pictures and virtual reality test drives were long. Products from Funko were avaialble to purchase and cool Star Wars themed cars were onhand to view.

Disney has expanded its empire and fans ate it up with many of them traveling from areas far, far away.

Look for this massive convention to return in 2020 with information at StarWarsCelebration.com.