The World Bodypainting Festival (WBF) is the World’s largest body painting event and Championship including different professional makeup categories such as special effects makeup, sponge and brush and airbrush, UV effects and face painting.
The 14th annual event was held at a new location in Pörtschach. The city of Pörtschach is located is located by the lake Wörthersee in Carinthia, the Southern part of Austria and can be reached within 15 minutes from the Klagenfurt airport.
Apart from attendees, sponsors and competitors many vendors from around the world gather at the Bodypainting festival to showcase their newest products including professional makeup supplies, special effects makeup, face painting supplies and airbrush tattoos.
This year, the festival attracted over 24,000 visitors. Professional makeup artists from 42 countries competed for the World Championship. Apart from body painting, the WBF brings art, music and different shows together making this a magical experience.
The event is a great opportunity to attend several different workshops including professional makeup, special effects makeup, airbrush makeup, sponge and brush face painting and airbrush tattoos.
This year the WBF kicked off with the WBF academy which is a great opportunity to see professional makeup artists from around the world in action while offering classes and demonstrations in different categories including professional makeup, face painting, airbrush body painting, special effects makeup, professional makeup, photography, airbrush tattoos and more. Virtually hundreds of participants attended the workshops and took classes from the world’s best instructors.
The themes for 2011 were “Renaissance – Rebirth” on the first 2 main days and “Haute Couture” on Sunday, the final day.
Friday was the first day of the event and it started with the category of Special Effects Make up and the preliminary round to the World Award in the category brush/sponge. The internationally renowned jury consisted of Mike Shane (Luxembourg), Craig Tracy (USA), Jinny (Canada), Filippo Loco (USA), Patrick McCann, (Germany/USA), Denis Penkov (Germany) and Ernst Wieser (Austria).
The event followed by fluoro competition and awards, sponge and brush, airbrush competition and amateur contest. The main categories which included brush/sponge, professional makeup, airbrush and special effects bodypainting were awarded with the World Champion title on the final day on Sunday.
The highlight of the show, the after party, took place on the final day of the event, and it is depicted by many as the “craziest party in the world”. By no doubt the WBF is one of the most sought after events in the face and body painting industry.
The 2012 is going to be the 15th anniversary of the World Bodypainting Festival and it will be held in Pörtschach. Austria. The event week is scheduled for July 2-8, 2012. It is highly recommended to register early especially for the WBF academy as there are limited seats available for each workshop in 2012.