Don’t fret: the air guitar world champion is about to be crowned in Finland

OULU, Finland (AP) — Passionate performers are lining up in Finland to pluck musical honors out of thin air.

This year’s Air Guitar World Championships reach their climax with a final Friday evening on a square in the western city of Oulu. It’s the 28th edition of an event that, over its three days, brings together competitors from 13 countries.

Contestants are judged on the performance of two songs in two separate rounds, each lasting 60 seconds. Passion is a must, but much of the rest is up to the contenders. Props and costumes are allowed, but backup bands and real instruments are off-limits.

The two-hour final pits last year’s winner, Canada’s Zachary “Ichabod Fame” Knowles, against eight national champions and seven contenders who emerged from the qualifying rounds. The challengers include U.S. champion Saladin “Six String Sal” Thomas and German champion Patrick “Van Airhoven” Culek.

The winner is chosen by a five-member jury of performing arts professionals. Whoever is crowned will win an actual guitar — a “Flying Finn” made by Finnish guitar maker Matti Nevalainen.

The championships were first held in 1996. Their organizers state that “according to the competition ideology, wars will end, climate change will stop and all bad things will vanish when all the people in the world play the air guitar.”

Contestants may, according to the rules, “use an electric or an acoustic air guitar, or both.” The jury takes into account “originality, the ability to be taken over by the music, stage presence, technical merit, artistic impression and Airness.”

Each jury member scores the performances with a mark between 4.0 and 6.0. Each contestant’s scores from the first and second round — the first with a song chosen by the performer and the second with one chosen by the organizers — are added together and the candidate with the highest total score wins.