Trip notes from official Wondermark World Beard & Moustache Championships correspondent Pat Race! His crew is also blogging and posting audio interviews at akrobotics.com. (All these photos are theirs.)
Tuesday, May 19
We arrived in Anchorage today, an unimpressive clump of concrete dwarfed by vast and beautiful surroundings. This year, Anchorage will host the World Beard and Moustache Championships, an event which takes place every other year and has been primarily rooted in European countries.
We spent our day wandering around lost until we found a man with a brown 70’s van and a long beard. He led us down an industrial back road to the Midnight Sun Brewery where we met up with several competitors, organizers, and beard fans from all parts of the world. A rising enthusiasm surrounds everyone.
Wednesday, May 20
Today a large contingent of American competitors arrived after cruising up through the inside passage of Southeast Alaska, the Germans rolled in yesterday and independent travelers from all over the world have been arriving by every means of transportation imaginable. Except hot air balloon, which is a slight disappointment. I’m still hoping for a man with a grand moustache to alight.
The World Beard and Moustache Championships kicked off in the late afternoon with a barbecue in Kincaid Park — an odd series of fields surrounded by remnants of cold war era ground-to-air missile bunkers. Hundreds of grinning bearded and mustachioed gentlemen packed the event with their friends, families, agents, stylists and associates in tow. I counted seven film crews from as many cities and this was just the informal barbecue.
More to come! And do check out Pat’s blog for more photos and great audio clips.
Malki is a fan of DarkRoom? Who knew! DarkRoom is pretty awesome though, and free is a price that I enjoy greatly.
The mustachioed fellow drifting in on a balloon would just be unfair competition, I think. Wouldn’t riding in on a penny-farthing have the same effect?