Not to be outdone by the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship will host an Opening Ceremony today in downtown Chattanooga. The ceremony will start up at 1:00 pm EST with the official lighting of the Krystal Square Off Grill to signify the beginning of this year’s Krystal Square Off Qualifying Tour.

After the lighting, Chattanoogans are invited to join the first ever “Running of the Grill” down Chestnut Street, complete with a police escort, parade of vehicles with local dignitaries, the Krystal cycling team on bikes and a host of Krystal employees.

The procession will end down at the Riverfront, where Krystal’s VP of Marketing Brad Wahl and George Shea from Major League Eating will host a press conference to set the stage for this year’s competitive eating contest, and immediately afterwards, Chattanooga’s most popular news personalities will compete in a 2-minute Krystal burger eating contest.

Head over to our sister site, the Krystal Square Off Blog, to find out which media personalities are competing and for more details. They’ll also have updates throughout the day, including photos, video and more.

According to a link on Eatfeats, the 20th-annual Fried Onion Burger Day Festival took place over the weekend in El Reno, Oklahoma. As part of the celebration, a 1,000 pound onion burger was grilled and then devoured by festival goers.

The onion burger has its roots in Oklahoma, according to this post over at A Hamburger Today, and the burger was (arguably) invented by a guy named Ross Davis. Davis began smashing onions into burgers during the depression because onions were much cheaper than meat.

And even though we like burgers, especially those with onions (although we prefer our onions steamed in), after watching the below video from the 2005 Burger Day Festival, we think we’d pass on the 1,000 pounder they’re cooking up and eat the 7, 547 Krystal burgers it would take to equal it instead. Maybe it’s the noise, or maybe it’s the size, but something about it just ain’t right.