Connecting cultures has been one of the foundations of the World Bodypainting Festival for eleven years now.

The 2008 festival saw an increase in the diversity of nations combining their art and sharing their inspiration. We were happy to welcome artists from Europe who have been long time supporters of the festival as well as many new entrants from the USA, a rise in numbers from the Asian regions and South America.

The standard of work increased amazingly this year with many more art works reaching the higher range of points achievable. It was great to see new faces on the stage receiving the World Champion titles with the trophies from this year in Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Poland and the USA.

Enjoy the festival report with the thousands of photos that we have updated in the past days and weeks.

See you soon,
Alex Barendregt

22,000 visitors were coming to the World Bodypainting Festival presented by "Frank's" this year making it the largest bodypainting event ever.
(registered nations)

The main days from the 18 to the 20 of July were the highlight with the presentation of the World Bodypainting Awards presented by Kryolan. But from the beginning of the week there was already a lot of action.

The festival week began with workshops from the Festival Academy from Monday to Thursday.

They ranged from facepainting, SFX, bodypainting, make-up to colour theory and airbrush. Hundreds of artists and students took part and took advantage of the teachers who had travelled from countries all around the world to share their knowledge.

Alex Hansen also did a demonstration on Thursday of some of the special effects used in the making of the movie ‘300’.

At the point bar artists, models and photographers met up with friends they hadn’t seen all year and exchanged news.

On Wednesday night the costume ball ‘Bodycircus’ was held in the castle ‘Burg Sommeregg’.

On Thursday night the book ‘Bringing Bodypainting to Life’ by Karala Barendregt was presented at the pre-glow party on the festival grounds.

The themes for the 2008 World Bodypainting Awards and Special Awards were ‘Science, World of Wonders’ for the Friday and

Saturday categories and ‘Asia, Empires growing, empires going’ for the Sunady finals.

On Friday the festival began with the categories Special Effects Make up, Airbrush Semi Pro and the pre-selection for the Brush and Sponge World Award.

The festival TV crew were sending live on the festival grounds over the whole three main days.

Impressions, live interviews, Shows and Music were broadcast onto the Video wall, to Plasma TVs on the festival grounds and on the Internet as Live-Streaming.

Uschi and Meinrad Froschin was on site at the festival creating his masterpiece hair sculptures.

The main music act of the day was Global Kryner who drew a great crowd in the evening. Mike Shane painted them for the cover of their new album. When they were finishing playing he created an elegant and magical action painting, poring to the rhythm of the music.

After the Global Kryner the World Fluoro Awards were held and the shows this year were truly fantastic.

On Saturday the categories Brush and Sponge Semi Pro, the Airbrush World Award Pre Selection and the World Facepainting Award were painting to the theme of Science, World of Wonders.

The band Mauf created some very interesting A Capella music during the day.

We also had our sponsors like Segafredo and our media partner Kleine Zeitung getting into the spirit of the event.

The semi pro categories meant that newcommers played a bigger part in the festival this year.

The winning ceremony was held after the main presentations on that day.

In the evening She Says played all the songs that have been making it in the charts over the last months.

Over the three main days the Kryolan VIP lounge put on a delicious buffet that kept guests coming back for more.

Sunday was the final day of the World Bodypainting Festival for 2008. The World Award finals in the categories Brush and Sponge and Airbrush bodypainting were joined by the World Award Bodypainting Special Effects. The best artists from all around the world created some amazing work.

A large committee of South Korean artists, teachers and organisers were present at the festival this year in preparation for the World Bodypainting Festival Asia which will be held in Daegu in South Korea from the 25th to the 31st of August 2008. They added an authentic touch of beautiful work to the Asia theme on Sunday.

Marcel Krauer created a really interesting installation artwork with some help from his friend Fredi Schmid live on the festival grounds that was a hot zone for photographers.

Japanese Calligraphy Artist Yukki Yaura painted a beautiful backdrop in the photographery area to go with the Asian theme.

The Frank's Bottledesign Contest was organized before the World Bodypainting Festival. Hundreds of raw bottles were sent out on request to have designs painted on them. On the final evening the most beautiful and creative bottle was choosen by the audience.

The travel voucher worth € 1.500 was won by Elisabeth Presslauer aus Straneg who will go as a participant to the Asian Festival in Korea.

The 2008 World Bodypainting Festival will be remembered as the year of friends. So many known faces came together and shared their support and knowledge with the ever growing bodypainting family.

Among many volunteers was Craig Tracy helping the artists while waiting for the jury.

Rain, thunder, heat and wind were again the driving forces to creativity with a giant storm clapping along to the final awards ceremony.

The results of the World Bodypainting Awards are available here -->

After such an intense week and such a build up of excitement on the final day, all the participants of the festival were ready for a celebration, especially the new world champions!

The musically synchronised fireworks that honoured the participants from all corners of the earth.

"I look forward to seeing you again on the Lake Millstätter See in Carinthia",

Alex and Karala Barendregt