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Austria: Results of the 20th World Bodypainting Festival
20 YEARS WORLD BODYPAINTING FESTIVAL AND A SUCCESSFUL PREMIERE IN KLAGENFURT
The Festival has been part of the local festival scene for 20 years now and is the biggest art and music festival of Carinthia, the southernmost federal state of Austria. 2017 was the first year in our new location – Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. The regional capital with its historical city center, theatre, and galleries is just the perfect location for the festival and its visitors, to enjoy an exciting festival week with a colourful potpourri of captivating bodypainting art and the delicious delicacies of the Street Food Market beside multiple musical top acts.
The heart of the festival was the world championship on the 3 main days (Friday 28th – Sunday 30th) with almost 300 competing artists teams from over 54 nations in various categories, trying to impress the festival visitors and the jury with their unique and outstandingly creative designs. On Sunday - shortly before midnight - the new world champions of the WBF 2017 were announced and celebrated in a spectacular awarding ceremony.
The category Brush & Sponge had very strong artworks this year. The world champion title was awarded to Sanatan Dinda (India) - winning the much desired title the second year in a row. Vice world champion champion got Marzia Bedeschi (Italy) followed by Cheryl Ann Lipstreu (USA).
In the category Airbrush, the title did go to Benoit Bottala, bringing the world champion title to Guadeloupe for the first time. Alex Hansen (Brasil) and Leonardo Giacomo Borgese (Italy) completed the winner's picture.
In the category of Special Effects the Austrian artist Ludwig Decarli was awarded World Champion of 2017, he already won the vice world champion title in the same category a few years back. Beside him, Olga Popova (Russia) and Benedetta Carugatti (Italy) were happy about their prices.
Besides the 3 main categories, 10 other titles were awarded.