JOENSUU /Finland/, July 12. /TASS/. On Thursday, the Finnish city of Joensuu held the first-ever Heavy Metal Knitting World Championship, during which participants demonstrated their knitting skills while dancing to a heavy metal song, a TASS correspondent reported.

The competition at the Artisan’s Quarter (Taitokortteli) tourism and folk art center in Joensuu was watched online by over 2 million people.

Contestants from Japan, Giga Body Metal, won the contest with their performance, which included sumo wrestlers and a man wearing a Japanese kimono. Crafts with Ellen, representing Denmark, was the runner-up. The third place went to 9 Inch Needles from the United States.

In order to participate, contestants were to download the song Fight or Die by Maniac Abductor, a heavy metal band from Joensuu, record a video of their heavy metal knitting performance with that song and download it on YouTube.

Videos from 13 countries were submitted for the competition, but only 12 clips from eight countries - the United Kingdom, Japan, Latvia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the United States and Russia - made it into the final.

Heavy metal has become an important part of the Finnish culture. According to statistics, there are 50 heavy metal bands per each 100,000 of the country’s residents, more than anywhere else in the world.