Monday, July 26, 2010

 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 the World'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.

    Another student says he was there for the free T-shirt.

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