Sweet words and phrases
"In 1998, organisers attempted to rally people from all over the world to play air guitar at the same time in the interest of fighting terrorism. This gesture is just one example of the contest's deeper value." (Quote Kee 18/2005)
"Forget the Olympics, the ninth World Air Guitar Championships in Oulu in Finland at the weekend was where the real competition was." (Quote The Big Issue in Scotland, September 2-8, 2004)
"It's hard to believe it's already been 10 years, but in that brief decade, these fine Finns have established one of the globe's most unique programs combining music videos, air guitar gods and yes, hardcore rocking out. Along with more than 100 new Finnish videos, this year's festival will again screen a diverse combination of new and classic music documentaries, animated clips, commercials and filmed moments of rock nostalgia. What's more, the annual Air Guitar World Championships has grown into an internationally known event, bringing together the planet's most prolificimaginary ax-wielders." (Quote RES Alert August 21, 2003)
"The Oulu Music Video Festival in Finland is the ultimate Bill and
Ted-inspired partying: uber-hip Finnish music videos, live bands, art house
short films, and the air guitar competition. Not anyrun-of-the-mill air
guitar competition, mind you, but the World Championships. Four days of music
and visuals you've probably never experienced anything like before, all
culminating in the air guitar finals where, according to the official
website, "all war and disease would cease to exist and all bad things would
disappear if everyone in the world only played air guitar." There's even a
two-day training camp held at an abandoned mansion on an island without
electricity before the festival starts. If that's not totally
rad, dude, we don't know what is." (Quote Student World Traveller June 16, 2002)
"It seems the Finnish didn't only invent something mildly funny but a beautiful remedy to all this world's worries too. And someday the championships are sure to be broadcast across the planet, and then it will be like back in the antique ages, when during the Olympics nobody even thought about fighting. An athmospere of peace will be in the air, you see." (Quote Tiscali Europe, September 3, 2002)
"Any country that also holds World Air Guitar Championships (there by knowingly allowing themselves to be beseiged by hordes of wanna-be guitarists with loosely strung tennis raquets and mullet hair cuts) has to have a highly-developed sense of irony." (Quote 2001 Lonely Planet Publications)
"Oulu, Finland is host to the Air Guitar World Championships August the 24th" (Time Europe lists the most important events of 2001 in its January/01 issue)
