Pub crawls, flash mobs, chalk art, and other events vie for world records and downtown crowds.
(Boonton, NJ, July 2, 2014) — In May, Philadelphia, PA, attempted to break the world record for the most people on a pub crawl. While the team at Guinness World Records tallied the attendance figures, Downtown Promotion Reporter looked at downtowns that drew record crowds with their own events.
Livermore Downtown Inc. in Livermore, CA, organized a dance flash mob. The event took place during the Livermore leg of the eight-day AMGEN cycling road race, giving race attendees and the media an additional reason to visit the town. The dance flash mob was also promoted as an opportunity to potentially be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people dancing in the street to music by the Monkees.
In Pasadena, CA, the Chalk Festival gives thousands of colorful sticks of chalk to hundreds of Madonnari (Italian for street painters). Street artists have two days to create “murals” on downtown streets. In 2010, the festival’s 179 murals set the Guinness World Record for the largest display of chalk pavement art.
And during a live music series in downtown Concord, CA, a special event involved 2,052 guitar players strumming This Land is Your Land, by Woody Guthrie, breaking the world record for largest guitar ensemble playing the same song.
Need more ideas? Consider the most people dancing with hula hoops (637); the most people planting flower bulbs at the same time (636); the largest painting by numbers (40,000 square feet); or the largest house made from interlocking plastic bricks (15 feet 4 inches high).
Details on how to host a pub crawl, along with information on coping with increasing city fees, hosting outdoor fitness events, and sponsoring community-wide garage sales appear in the July issue of Downtown Promotion Reporter.
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For over 50 years, the Downtown Research & Development Center has acted as the information clearinghouse on practical strategies and tactics for revitalizing the hearts of our cities and towns.
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