Viral farting competition is damp squib

W/S Farting competition, Liege
W/S Panel of judges
M/S Judges applauding
SOT, Marc, organiser (French): "It began by a mistake. Actually the people believed it and not us. And we said, if the people believe in this event, let's do it. It started with the idea of creating a Facebook event more stupid than what already existed. It grew and grew until 15,000 people clicked attending on the Facebook event."
W/S Panel of judges
SOT, competitor 1 (French): "We come from south of France, but we study here in Belgium and we were looking for a cool event at the weekend. We'll be trying to make a score for the longest fart. I've already been training for a while."
Competitor 2 (French): "And I'm the one who produces bad-smelling farts."
M/S Farting sign
SOT, cameraman 1 (French): "I think he will participate and then I will try."
Cameraman 2 (French): "But I don't promise anything, we'll see.
W/S Judges awarding prize
W/S Palais des Congres
SCRIPT
A farting competition that went viral online - with more than 15,000 clicking attending on Facebook - was no more than a fart in the wind.
Saturday's event saw only a handful competitors turn up, far outnumbered by the media. One cameraman even offered to take part to boost numbers.
What initially started as a joke - farting around, even - quickly became a reality for the organisers. They booked out a room at Liege's Palais de Congres and created four categories: the longest fart, the most melodic, the two-sound fart and the worst-smelling.
Burning farts were banned due to fire-safety concerns, while the wet fart was considered a slippery risk, according to organiser Marc.
After a short judging process, the winners were awarded a Carrefour cassoulet and cauliflower.