It's a new year, and that means, unbelievable as it may sound, that it's time to start thinking about this year's air guitar season. Since local qualifiers may be starting as early as May (and I hope they are - more on that in a minute), that's only 4 months of time to prepare! For both organizers and competitors, that means it's time to get your head in the game.

Competitors

You know what you need to do. If you haven't already, you need to pick your song, make your edit, and start practicing. If you're new, you need to think up your air guitar name and get a costume together as well (and start getting your courage up). P.S., if you're new, maybe this 7-step checklist will help you get ready!

Another thing to think about as a competitor is to be a promoter for the show! Not in a sleazy way, but let's be honest: it's not always easy to put these shows on, especially if your city hasn't had a qualifier before and the whole idea of competitive air guitar is foreign to venue owners. If you want to keep having competitions in your town, it's in your interest that the show does well and that the place is packed. Besides, isn't it easier to get onstage and perform if you've rolled deep to the show? So get out there on your social networks, badger your friends, and help fill the room with people who will scream and cheer for you!

Organizers

If you're putting on a qualifier in your town this year, it's time to start getting to work! A lot goes into this, in case you haven't done it before. You'll have to lock down a venue, which, if you haven't hosted one there before, might be a tough sell. You know, and every air guitarist and everyone who's ever been to an air guitar event knows, that it'll be a great show and air guitar people drink generously - but the venue doesn't know that and they think they're getting a weird mime show where people pretend to do something. Not a huge impetus to let you book it. So give yourself time to find the right place and convince them that they are the right place.

You also need to make sure your prospective participants have time to sign up! They need to hear about it, decide to do it, and get around to signing up. You might have to peer pressure some friends. Speaking of peer pressure, you'll have to get some judges, too, and maybe an MC if that isn't going to be you.

For some people, the next step will just be to promote it; if you've done this before, you probably have all the other infrastructure (second round songs, all the odds and ends you'll need to bring, an idea of what you'll be doing) in place. If you don't have that stuff, it'll take some time to get it all together!

So: it'll be a hot minute. Get started now.

When you're planning out when to shoot for, I'm in favour of having your qualifier in May or June - earlier is better. This is because if last year is any indication, the Semi-Final competitions will be in July, with Nationals in August. (Note: I'm not nuts about that either, because it results in the national champ and anyone else who wants to try their luck having to basically dash right off to Finland as soon as Nationals wraps up, but it's nothing I can do anything about)
But what you want to do here is host your qualifier with well enough time for the winners to arrange their trip to wherever the semifinal is - if someone wasn't expecting to go and then they win, you don't want them to have to ask for time off 2 days hence. Plus, if people are traveling to you, and traveling to semis, give them the chance to space it out a bit.

Once you've got the venue and date down, it's time to turn into a shameless promotion machine. You can't pipe up the day before and tell people they ought to come to your thing - you need to build that plan in their mind for a while so they can decide they're interested, make the time, and know whether or not they have a conflict. So again, get started as soon as possible so you'll have enough time to give your attendees.

Ready? Go.

And if you're in the mood to reminisce about last year, check out the 2013 Air Guitar Season page! But remember - this year is closer than last year.