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International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
National
Annalyn Zoglmann

Where the Ugliest Face Wins: Inside Britain's Bizarre but Beloved World Gurning Championships

Britain Cumbria TikTok
Contorted faces are a hallmark of the World Gurning Championship in Cumbria (Credit: Facebook Egremont Crab Fair & World Gurning Championships)

KEY POINTS

  • Contestants compete by contorting their faces through a horse collar to win the title of World Gurning Champion.
  • Organisers say the contest celebrates humour, community, and freedom from vanity.

Every year in the sleepy Cumbrian town of Egremont, beauty takes a back seat to the bizarre. Here, in one of Britain's strangest traditions, men, women and children twist, scrunch and distort their faces in a battle to be crowned the World Gurning Champion.

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