The performance pressure and the media glare turned out to be so stressful for the contestants of a fart competition held in Surat that only three turned up for it and even they got stage fright and could not do the deed.
Mul Sanghvi, one of the organisers of the event, said that at least 12 people had registered to be the contestants for the event. "But eventually when they came in they saw so many cameras and most of them refused to come on stage to compete," said Sanghvi. He said only three participants one each from Patan, Bardoli and Surat finally decided to compete but even they failed to perform. "The contestants told us that they could fart in another room without the attention," said Sanghvi. "Even my friend from Chennai who came all the way to participate refused to come on stage," said Sanghvi. The organisers spend several minutes convincing the participants to come forward but most chose to stay on their seats. Eventually they distributed the prizes including Rs5000 worth gift hampers and Rs5000 in cash among the three contestants. Interestingly, there were no females either as contestants or audience at the event. "The attention made several people embarrassed. Some women had registered themselves but once they saw how much attention the event was getting they chose to go away," he said.
The event christened WTF- What the Fart is the brainchild of two friends Sanghvi and Yatin Sangoi. The contest gained a lot of popularity on social media and the organisers had earlier claimed that they got 40 registration.
The contestants were to be judged on the basis of three factors—the length of the fart, its loudness, and the musical aspect it produces. The contestants were granted a minute's time to show their talent and woo the judges. Earlier Sanghvi had said that he had not expected the contest to gain so much publicity and the initial idea was to create a fun contest that people would enjoy.