Watch: The World Championship of Heavy Metal Knitting Was a Real F***in’ Freakshow

As those of you who like metal and spend too much time on the Internet know, heavy metal knitting is very much a thing. In fact, it’s enough of a thing that there is a World Championship of Heavy Metal Knitting that goes on in Joensuu, Finland, where yarn-loving metalheads can get onstage, knit to a metal track, and general make themselves look like a baffling nutbar. And now, footage has been released of this year’s competition, and as you might imagine, it was basically a human zoo full of questionable choices.

For the record, here’s the mission statement of the event’s creators:

“In heavy metal knitting, needlework and music become united like never before. On the same stage … there’s heavy metal music and knitting shaking hands. Knitting to the rhythm of heavy metal music can be compared to playing air guitar.”

Cool.

As you might wonder watching the video below, who will win this heavy metal knitting championship? Is it the girl in the skull mask doing high kicks? Is it the guy dressed in a unicorn hood that we can only surmise he knitted himself? Is it the cult of String Thing, a massive creature who runs into the crowd with giant balls of yarn, intent on nothing but destroying those foolhardy enough to behold him? Turns out it’s sort of none of them, but a champion was declared, and it was…well, you’ll just have to watch and see!

According to the competition’s judges (as transcribed by Loudwire), the winners won them over with energy and ingenuity:

“Creativity was shown in many different forms — from costumes to the using of space and stage. … The show popped from the stage in the form of huge yarn balls and the audience was included to have fun with the artist.”

Check out footage of the World Championship of Heavy Metal Knitting below.