BS: What is the main idea behind the Write 4 Gold events?
Lars: The main idea is to bring writers together and have a friendly battle in a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Graffiti is a competitive artform with no real rules or guidelines, but Write4Gold is an attempt to create a format where crews can compete evenly in graffiti. All crews gets the same conditions, same cans, same topic and same timeframe. So all disciplines of graffiti covered with the 4 categories (concept wall, throwup, tag and sketch) it all comes down to skill! The competition takes place on a national scale and the national winner qualifies for the international finale each summer at Splash Festival in Germany.
BS: Who is judging the competitions?
Lars: Several formats for judging have been tried over the years. The most popular judging format is the one currently being used, where the competition is judged by the participating crews themselves and one invited judge. By adding up all the verdicts an overall winner is found.
This format works great, everybody involved always have an opinion about it and with this format everyone is heard.
BS: Let us know when and how you started this serie of events.
Lars: The idea came to us at the 2002 Battle Of The Year International breakdance competition, to have an international graffiti battle. The following year we started Write4Gold with 5 big events that year, the first 2003 champions where the GFA crew from Berlin.
BS: What kind of collaboration do you have with Molotow?
Lars: Molotow is the main sponsor of the whole Write4gold competition, providing us with all the spraycans and markers used in the competition.
BS: Did you had a lot of problems with the local police and politics concerning the W4G events?
Lars: Its different from country to country, in some places the word graffiti can cause some raised eyebrowse, but in general we provide a nice and well organised event that everyone can appreciate. It can be hard to find enough wallspace for Write4Gold, as the competition requires alot of space, in places with low tolerance for graffiti such space can be hard to find.
BS: What is the your best memories of these events so far?
Lars: Its hard to name just one, there are so many! The Italian Write4Gold is always great, the crowd at the throwup competition act like its a football game finale and cheer for their favorite writer like crazy!
They compete with a passion in Rome!
The finals at Splash Festival are always special, you got so many great crews from everywhere gathered in one place, all having a great time while doing outstanding concept walls.
BS: What can we expect from the W4G competition this year?
Lars: This year the sketching changed from graphic markers on paper to one4all markers on canvas, so hopefully you can expect some new results there. Alot of crews are now more familiar with the hwole Wrie4Gold format and are therefore better able to optimize their efforts to create even more amazing results. And we are returing to countries where we havent been in years, like Poland and the UK.
BS: Any last words?
Lars: Thanks to everyone who participated in Write4Gold over the last 7 years! And thanks to all the local organisers that helped to make it happen. We are always looking for local organisers to work with, without them, no Write4Gold. So if you have a good location with lots of wallspace and want to work with us, please feel free to contact us and lets see if we can bring Write4Gold to your city and country!
Watch out for all the 2008 competitions, taking place every weekend from now on and untill the big international finale at Splash Festival on July 11th!!
Check out www.write4gold.com for much more info, photos and video.