Talk about your late-breaking news. Details have literally JUST NOW surfaced about an air guitar qualifier held at Burning Man last summer - right after 2014 US Air Guitar Nationals, so it was technically part of the 2015 season.
Hosted by Seth Leibowitz, the qualifier proceeded more or less according to regular qualifier norms and boasted 21 competitors! I can't tell whether I'm surprised something so regimented and judgment-based was a hit at Burning Man, of all places, or whether I'm not surprised at all - after all, if people go there looking for the ineffable in the joy of performance, something with an entire judging category based on a nebulous quality that can only be felt seems more or less perfect.
Unsurprisingly, I guess, there were a bunch of disqualifications - people using props and one competitor who couldn't prove they were of age, which... do we still care about that? Last season we had two air guitarists who had to be smuggled into their venues due to underageness, and at least one of them is still, I think, underage. At any rate, the ultimate winner was The Airistocrat, and he'll compete in the Northwest Semifinal (also, semis have been rebranded as "Regional Finals," because why not, I guess. I expect to still call them semis about 80% of the time).
My thought is primarily, will this become a tradition at Burning Man, becoming the earliest qualifier of every season (since the festival takes place right after Nationals), and for that matter, will more qualifiers start popping up in the off-season? I assume they would initially have to be unofficial - some member of the air guitar family just doing the thing - but if they ran it well, it might wind up feeding its winner into the nearest semi. I mean, regional final. You know.
Anyway, congratulations to The Airistocrat, and high fives to Seth Leibowitz for bringing air guitar to a new audience. Get all the details of this top-secret surprise qualifier over at the USAG site!