| Review 2008 |
22,000 visitors were coming to the World Bodypainting Festival presented by "Frank's" this year making it the largest bodypainting event ever.
(Click for 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. |
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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.
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| Many of the sponsors from the World Bodypainting Festival presented workshops making it possible for us to have a wide range of classes. |
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Alex Hansen also did a demonstration on Thursday of some of the special effects used in the making of the movie ‘300’.
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At the point bar artists, models and photographers met up with friends they hadn’t seen all year and exchanged news.
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| On Wednesday night the costume ball ‘Bodycircus’ was held in the castle ‘Burg Sommeregg’. |
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| The weather was beautiful and over six hundred guests partied away till the early hours of the morning. |
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The DJ line up was led by Matt Emulsion and LeisureGroove from London followed by Lords of House, DJ Ruuk and Philipp van het Veld.
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Yukki Yaura was a special guest and painted Japanese calligraphy onto models and guests.
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| The International Stylist School of Riga also created an amazing show for us this year with amazing costumes, music and performance. |
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The torture meuseum was an exciting location. Again this year many people danced here till the night became the day. The castle was wrapped in the veil of fantastic figures until the grey of morning.
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On Thursday night the book ‘Bringing Bodypainting to Life’ by Karala Barendregt was presented at the pre-glow party on the festival grounds.
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Over 400 guests and almost all of the artists featured in the book were there to take part in the launch.
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For the tenth year jubilee in 2007 the entrance area was presented as a "Hall of Fame" with all the winners of the World Awards since its beginning exhibited and honoured. This year we extended the hall and would like to keep that tradition also for the next years.
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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.
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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.
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| Through the day the band Stereopulse played some great music as well as Dj’s such as DNL, LeisureGroove and Matt Emulsion and percussionist "Soundkist'n" pumping rhythm through the grounds. |
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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. |
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Each day there was also an analysis with the artists who made it into the top three in the qualifying rounds.
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Uschi and Meinrad Froschin was on site at the festival creating his masterpiece hair sculptures.
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| 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.
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After the Global Kryner the World Fluoro Awards were held and the shows this year were truly fantastic.
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On the festival grounds we had a large exhibition with all the major products in the bodypainting field available for artists and guests to buy.
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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The market on the festival grounds was open till late evening giving visitors a chance to shop.
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| The big Korean Group brought over also some o f the most famous Korean pop folk group over. "Vinalog" played trough the warm summer evening.l |
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In the evening She Says played all the songs that have been making it in the charts over the last months.
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Over the three main days the Kryolan VIP lounge put on a delicious buffet that kept guests coming back for more.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Japanese Calligraphy Artist Yukki Yaura painted a beautiful backdrop in the photographery area to go with the Asian theme.
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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. |
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It was great to see some artists to put a lot of afford into their performances. Such as Nick and Brian Wolfe with their hilarious Taekwondo Costumes.
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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.
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Rain, thunder, heat and wind were again the driving forces to creativity with a giant storm clapping along to the final awards ceremony.
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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. |
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| The after show party was held in the catering tent. Hundreds of people spontaneously took part in a hilarious paint bomb party. Who knows what will happen next year! |
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"I look forward to seeing you again on the Lake Millstätter See in Carinthia",
Alex and Karala Barendregt
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 All photo galleries 2008 |
