Legends of bartending is a two day event (this year it is March 5,6 & 7 broken into a qualifying and a finals day. bartenders go through three grueling rounds of qualifying to narrow the field from 75 to 10. These rounds are made up of a speed round, where the bartenders make drinks and fast and accurate as possible and are scored accordingly, an accuracy round, where the bartenders make liquor pours and are tested to the one-thousandth of and ounce for accuracy, then the final qualifying round the exhibition/working flair round. In this round bartenders make drinks using flair. Flair is anything that is done behind the bar with style, show or entertainment above and beyond that which you would see at any bar. Things that are emphasized the most would be bottle flipping. The round is broken down into to types of flair. The first typ is working flair. Working flair is the type of flair that you would do behind the bar without impeding service, with any bar object you pick up, including bottles that are at all different levels. The other type of flair is exhibition flair. Here bartenders perform specific routines to music and have a set amount (very little) of liquor in their bottles. This is where the competion gets wild. Today you will see bartenders performing tricks with two, three, four, five, and yes, even six bottles. It is amazing how far the sport of flair bartending has come since it emergence to the American public on the big screen in that movie (Cocktail, but don't say it too loud) way back in 1988.
