Where: Pelkosenniemi, Finland
When: June
Sweden became new world champions at the extreme sport of mosquito swatting in June 2016, after Kristoffer Ekersund swatted a massive 135 mosquitoes during his 15 minute world championship attempt in the Finnish town of Pelkosenniemi.
Participants have to swat as many mosquitoes as they can while standing in a square metre of grass. Experienced competitors work up a sweat to tempt the creatures in.
The winner, who completely overshadowed all previously held records claimed that the mosquito bites just itch, so it’s not so bad, but that he also thought that he’d got bitten around 200 times in his 15 minutes. He also revealed a few tactics to swatting squadrons of parasites, including wearing dark clothes, getting as sweaty as possible, standing still and being light on the touch (whatever that means). My tactics are to stay well away and not getten bitten as a result!
Chris Gray
The Definitive List of World Festivals 