Altogether 27 Dark Horses battled over the last spots in the Air Guitar World Championships Final in Oulu, Northern Finland on Thursday 23rd of August. The highest scores were given to Kate “KitKat” Rose form the USA who took over the first place with energetic and wild performance. The second-best scores were given to Toshio “Shariten Kid” from Japan and the third spot was taken by Andrew “Flying Finn” who came as well from the USA.
Dark Horses Qualifiying Round, Results:
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9. Bob Wagner “Mr. Bob” CAN [16,7]
10. Frederic Reau “French Kiss” FRA [16,7]
11. Aapo Rautio ”Slightly Bigger” FIN [16,7]
12. Kyle Privette ”Sweetness” USA [16,6]
13. Timothy J Evans ” ICAiRUS” CAN [16,6]
14. Cameron Hawk “Pork Sword” USA [16,6]
15. Mark Slater “Whiskey Pockets” CAN [16,6]
16. Del-Kun Chen “Neo G.Tso” TW [16,5]
17. Jaime Farnan “DDT” USA [16,4]
18. Richard Anderson “Spudboy” USA [16,3]
19. Rizwan Ahsan “Papa Air” USA [16,1]
20. Daisuke Iwata “Ganta G. Crusher” JPN [16,1]
21. Kereel Blumenkrants “Toaster Strudel” RUS [15,9]
22. Matthew Dailey “His Airness” USA [15,9]
23. John Humphrey “Noah Strings Attached” USA [15,9]
24. Rachel Meyers-Hawk “Stabitha Christie” USA [15,8]
25. Carlos Mengual “Hanzel the Manzel” CAN [15,8]
26. Tom Hill ”Sgt Wrecker” AUS [15,8]
27. Katharina Tomaschek ”Viking Aurora” GER [14,8]
High quality photos of the Qualification winners can be found on Media Gallery at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yu95v3z0vxqoujj/AAClkrYxbisymWDnkI2nGCg0a?dl=0. Photo credits Juuso Haarala.
The honorary jury included Henri Turunen, Niina Ristolainen, Joel Hokka, Paavo Heinonen and Petri Kauppinen.
Henri Turunen is a Jack of All Trades of event and media production. In nightlife, he has been seen to play air guitar, but with an electric guitar, he can be heard in the bands named Riutta and Neondad.
Niina Ristolainen has been almost for a decade working in charge of communications of Oulu's rock festival Qstock, and in addition to that as a member of the top management. In her free time, she likes to exceed her comfort zone and try something new, though every now and then she likes to enjoy her own time with a cup of favorite tea. The best things in life for her is to get loose, meet a person, delivering feelings through music and dogs that look in the eyes.
Petri Kauppinen is a dancer, master of dance art, dance teacher, choreographer, and director. Petri's repertory of dance varies in the width of folk dance to contemporary one, all the way to the theatre of dance and music. Petri Kauppinen's production has been performed by tens of domestic and international dance groups. At the moment Kauppinen operates as a lecturer in Oulu University of Applied Sciences and as an artistic director of a project called Koko Suomi Tanssii, the whole Finland dances.
Paavo J. Heinonen has missed two AGWC final shows: in 2003, when writing his Master's thesis (“Telephone Rings: Literature and Distant Voices”) in Kemptown, Brighton, and in 2012, when he went home “for a little nap” at 4 PM and woke up at 11 PM, as Nordic Thunder was already celebrating in 45 Special. His first choice for karaoke is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
Joel Hokka is a musician, songwriter, music producer originally from Oulu but currently based in Helsinki. He is the establishing member of Blind Channel and singing guitarist of the band.
Air Guitar World Champion Will Be Crowned on Friday
The Air Guitar year culminates in the World Final on Friday 24th of August when the world’s best air guitarists battle over the victory at Rotuaari square. The Final is also streamed live online to the international audience through http://www.ilmakitara.fi/fi/stream starting at 8 p.m.
In addition to eight Dark Horses from today, six national winners and the last year’s winner will be seen in the World’s Finals.
The USA: Matt "Airistotle" Burns
The USA: Brittany "Georgia Lunch" Diaz
Canada: Dana "Dana-Saurus Rex" Schiemann
Germany: Patrick "Ehrwolf" Culek
Great Britain: Sven "Sven Spandex" Smith
Japan: Nanami "Seven Seas" Nagura
Australia: Alex "The Jinja Assassin" Roberts
The World Final is hosted by the former World Champion Justin “Nordic Thunder” Howard (US) and Jani Kortti, who hosted the Dark Horses’ Qualifications as well. Finals hold the honoured line up of judges Juha Torvinen, Samu Forsblom, Suvi Aalto, Mika Lammassaari and Asta Salomaa. In addition to performances, the audience will witness some surprise program made up by the guitarists. Some impressive things are about to be seen!
www.airguitarworldchampionships.com
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For more information contact:
Riikka Annika Keskitalo
Press coordinator
tel. + 358 40 831 5766 / [email protected]
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Hanna Ikonen
Producer
+358 44 700 1057 / [email protected]
The purpose of the Air Guitar World Championships is to promote world peace. According to the ideology of the Air Guitar, wars would end, climate change stop and all bad things disappear, if all the people in the world played the Air Guitar. This is why the whole universe is invited to play the Air Guitar for the world peace at the end of the competition.
For Peace, From Oulu.
© Koodiviidakko Oy - Y-tunnus 1939962-1