WingFest at 25: The Mountain, the Wings, and Thursday's Fleetwood Mac Reckoning

There is no more honest expression of a Centre County summer than standing on a ski slope in July, a paper boat of chicken wings in one hand, watching a tribute band you didn't know you needed. That's WingFest, and this Thursday, July 16, it hits the middle of a milestone run: the 25th annual season at the Tussey Mountain Amphitheater in Boalsburg.

This year the whole operation got bigger. Organizers stretched it to nine Thursdays — June 11 through August 6, 5 to 10 p.m. each week — and lined up more than 40 restaurants to battle across the first eight weeks, with attendees voting until one kitchen is crowned the 2026 Wing King at the August 6 finale. (Reigning champ: the Bull Pen Restaurant & Sports Bar, which took the 2025 crown and presumably has a target on its back.) Every week, radio veteran Ricky LaPean works the mic as emcee. And every dollar serves a purpose: WingFest benefits the ACRES Project, a Centre County nonprofit dedicated to empowering adults with autism. Eat wings, hear a band, fund something that matters — the math is not complicated.

Thursday's bill leans hard into the tribute-band sweet spot that Tussey has perfected. Headlining are The Seven Wonders, a Fleetwood Mac tribute, with Felix and the Hurricanes — a genuine regional blues-rock institution — opening. If you've never seen a good Mac tribute do "The Chain" as the sun goes down over the ridge, you're missing one of those low-stakes, high-joy summer experiences that a college town in its quiet season does better than anywhere.

The tribute theme runs all season, and it's worth knowing what's coming. The mountain already hosted Pink Talking Fish (a Pink Floyd–Talking Heads–Phish mashup) on July 9; still ahead are Beatlemania Again on July 23, The Clintones' "Ultimate 90's" set July 30, and the August 6 finale with Velveeta and The Jaded Lips, the night the Wing King is anointed. It is, top to bottom, a lineup engineered for a lawn chair and a cold drink.

Here's why WingFest endures where flashier concert series flame out. It understands its town. State College in July is not a place for a hard-ticket arena tour — the students are gone, the calendar is soft, and nobody wants to stand shoulder to shoulder in a hot room. WingFest gives you the opposite: a mountain, open air, families and retirees and townies all on the same grassy grade, a nonprofit cause baked into the ticket, and music built entirely around songs you already know every word to. That's not a compromise. That's a formula, and 25 years is the proof.

Gates and food open early; come with an appetite and a plan to vote, because the wing ballot is the whole civic ritual. Bring a chair, bring sunscreen, and bring the friends who claim they "don't really do concerts" — this is the one that converts them. Twenty-five summers in, Tussey Mountain has the recipe down cold. Rumours starts at dusk. Don't be late.

Sources: Tussey Mountain Announces Music Lineup, Extra Week for 25th Annual WingFest, StateCollege.com; Who's playing Tussey Mountain WingFest in 2026?, WTAJ