(CNN) -- It used to be that air guitar was the exclusive domain of zit-faced teenage boys in the privacy of their rooms -- and maybe that's where it should have stayed.
But it's mainstream now, with air shredders plying their trade on phantom guitars in international competition, strutting, cartwheeling and windmilling their way across the stage before ravenous fans like over-enthusiastic versions of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and James Hetfield.
The Air Guitar World Championships are taking place this week in Oulu, Finland. Not for the first time either, this is the 15th anniversary edition.
If mop tops are more your cup of tea, the International Beatle Week Festival is underway in Liverpool, England.
Bands from across the globe will be playing the music of the Fab Four in the Cavern Club, where the Beatles got their start.
Back in Finland, the four-day axe-travaganza includes a dark horse competition, an air guitar parade and grand final, in which the champion is declared "the airiest of them all". The winner takes home the real thing: a Flying Finn electric guitar. CNN
