Nice video with TGI Friday's bartenders from Prestwich with crazy and heavily edited flair tricks. Our subscriber Eric Bergmann, a flair bartender himself, commented on Facebook: "Some tricks are obvious fakes, but it's still very entertaining."

Don't do this at home!

The Canadian Mike McLean is Director of the FBA and as a Certified Master Judge jury member at many flair competitions. He is furthermore Director of Marketing and Sales of Flairco.

Why are you coming to
the Bar Convent Berlin
and what do you expect from it?

I am coming to the Bar Covent Berlin as a representative for the Flair Bartenders’ Association (FBA). I will be involved with the Flair Camp area of the show, interacting with flair bartenders and other show attendees to talk flair. I will also act as a judge for the Mixology Flair Team Award.

How do you like your job as Director of the FBA and what are your main tasks there?

I truly enjoy my position with the FBA as it allows me to interact with bartenders all over the world. I am heavily involved in the competition aspect of flair bartending as an FBA Certified Master Judge and organizer of many smaller competitions specifically designed for up and coming competitive flair bartender.

One of my priorities with the FBA is the spread of information about flair bartending and bartenders, both within the hospitality industry and to the general public or media.

The company ModernBartending consits of two pillars. On the one hand the bar academy Barschule München that offers courses and trainings for bartenders, on the other BarPerformance the section for events and catering.

Founder of ModerBartending is Matthias Knorr, further members of the team are his wife Anna Knorr, Tom Weinberger and the magician Tombeck. If needed the team can be enlarged with additional flairtenders.

Why are you coming to the Bar Convent Berlin and what do you expect from the Mixology Flair Team Awards?

We want to meet old and new friends and others from the bar business. Also we are looking forward to the competition and the presentation of our company.

Robin Weiss is owner of two Bar-Restaurants and the catering company SpeedBartending. He furthermore works as a consultant for the beverage and hospitality industries.

The former flairtender is Director Europe West of the Flair Bartenders Association and has been a jury member at many competitions.

Why are you coming to the Bar Convent Berlin and what do you expect from the panel discussion with the DBU (German Bartenders Association)?

Because Helmut invited me...

No, seriously, I wanted to be there last year already, and after hearing comments about it, I regret even more that I did not have the time. However, this year the date has been marked red in my calender...

I expect from the panel discussions that we can shed prejudices and possibly start a new, possitive cooperation all together in the near future to the good of the bartending profession. Amen!

For the first time there will be an award for Flair Team of the Year at our Mixology Bar Awards this year. Four teams will compete in an innovative competition at the new Flair Camp at Bar Convent Berlin. Flair professional Marco Canova and Mike McLean (FBA vice president) will be hosting the Camp and judge the flair performance.

In contrast to other competitions the individual skills will not be the main criterion, it is rather the team work during different activities that counts. Next to a professional and innovative Flair show, the teams have to do a professional presentation of their team and explain how they organize their business.

We are looking forward to an exciting contest for the first Mixology Flair Team Award.

Following teams will participate:

- BarPerformance (Barschule München)

- 4 Flair (Frankfurt a.M.)

- Cologne Flair Connection (Köln) Team Myster, Berlin

- Flairfreaks (Nürnberg)

The Flair Camp will be hosted by Cem Oezkan and David Wiedemann.