At the Bizarre Ball on 10 October, the winners of our year-long How Bizarre Are You? creative competition were finally announced – and a host of Bizarre favourites were on hand to dish out the awards.

Ladies and gentlefolk, we present, THE WINNERS! (click on the pics right)

BIZARRE PHOTOGRAPHY
Despite our pleas not to enter girlie shots – they go in Ultra Vixens – or pictures of hideous flesh wounds (see Gallery Of Pain, people!), most of the snaps we received were of sexy girls or horrific injuries. But among the boobs and blood shone Georgeana Error’s photos of the annual tar barrel festival in her hometown of Ottery St Mary, Devon; sharp and vibrant images that captured a tangible sense of danger as her subjects rolled fiery wooden kegs through the town centre. You could almost smell the thick, oily smoke. Cough…

BIZARRE ART
Bizarre Towers is now awash with pervy paintings, screwy sketches and dastardly digital photos. For us, though, there could only be one winner – Ben Newman. Over the years, Bizarre has printed quite a few images from Ben’s kinky portfolio, and we were delighted to reward his oddball interpretation of The Wizard Of Oz with a bunch of amazing prizes. Well done, Ben!

BIZARRE TRUE STORIES
Although we had a load of entries for this category, we’ve gone against our own terms and conditions to award the top prize to a 15 year old! Because she’s under 18, we couldn’t invite Lydia Johnson to the Ball to collect her award, but her incredibly emotive story of a visit to an abandoned German concentration camp made us feel cold, depressed and uncomfortable – in short, it made us feel like we were there, which was the whole point of the category. Read her story here
Lydia

BIZARRE FICTION
God, you lot are twisted. We spent a week rocking back and forth in a padded cell after reading your tales of horror, death, suicide and despair. But shining like a diamond in the rough was Nadine Hearity’s surreal story of a troupe of burlesque dancers, one of whom gives birth to Jesus! A charming narrative that captured the Bizarre spirit, Nadine’s prize was wholly deserved. Read it here Bizarre Burlesque

THE ULTIMATE WINNER!
And the prize for the ultimate How Bizarre Are You? winner 2008 goes to… Ben Newman! Congratulations – your artwork blew us away!