Air Guitar World Championships

The Air Guitar World Championships began in Oulu in 1996 as a side event of a music video festival and became the thing the festival is known for. Competitors perform for one minute to a track of their own choosing and one minute to a compulsory track, judged on technical merit, stage presence and what the rules call airness, the extent to which the performance stops being an imitation of guitar playing and becomes something in its own right. Qualifying rounds run in a number of countries. The event is staged with complete seriousness and a stated ideology about world peace, which is part of the joke and also, in a way, not.

What you actually see

• One compulsory and one free round - the competition format.
• Judging on airness - the criterion the rules actually name.
• National qualifiers on stage - competitors who came through heats abroad.
• The outdoor final in the city - the crowd in central Oulu.

When to go

August, over a few days, with the final on the last evening. An evening. Tickets go on sale in advance and the final fills. Dates are announced early in the year.

Honest expectations

It happens once a year and lasts a few days. Tickets for the final sell out. Accommodation in Oulu is tight that week. It is a comic event and anyone expecting a music festival will be in the wrong place.

Nearby

Nallikari is west; the market square is in the centre.