Largest
water balloon fight - BYU students sets world
record
PROVO, Utah, USA - Students at Brigham Young University
in Utah organized a giant water ballon fight, with 3,927 participants
and 120,021 balloons - setting the new world record for the
Largest
water balloon fight. Photo: A music video was being filmed
with musician Kyle Andrews in the middle of the "Cougar Cooldown,"
a successful world record attempt for theWorld's
Largest
water balloon fight. Photo by KRISTIN HEINICHEN/Daily
Herald(enlarge
photo)
The previous Guinness World Record for the
Largest
water balloon fight was held by The University of
Kentucky with 3,902 participants and 119,211 balloons.
Event organizers filled 120,000 balloons
for 48 hours straight. Students reached their target number
at 8 a.m.
"We wanted to top that with 4,000 participants
at least. We plan to exceed that and hopefully get 5,000 today,"
said Lori Gardiner, event coordinator, before the water balloon
fight.
"The thought that maybe like in the future,
that this record will last a while and I can tell my siblings
who come here other friends and people about it," said Serena
Martinez, a BYU sophomore.
It will make for some brilliant scenery
in Kyle Andrews’s upcoming music video for his springy “You
Always Make Me Smile,” as heard on recent Holiday Inn commercials.
The Nashville singer stood with a guitar on a platform right
in the thick of battle. Cosmo the Cougar was also among the
ranks.
Each participant was given a sack of 30
pre-filled water balloons and a colored T-shirt, then got
corralled into the firing line — pink and green on one side,
blue and orange on the other.
Six minutes might not seem like that
long, but given its clip of more than 330 balloons fired per
second, the assault seemed interminable.
Even as the crowd filed out for lunch,
provided free by the Cougar Cooldown, patient balloon-hoarders
were still lobbing their Parthian shots.
An American Red Cross blood drive
also followed the post-battle lunch.
One B-Y-U student who participated
says she hopes this record lasts for awhile, so she can brag
to her family and friends.
