Bakersfield High School’s Instrumental Musical Boosters’ attempt to break the world record fell short Aug. 28.
The event was held that evening to support two goals: serving as a fundraiser for the school’s music program and making an attempt at breaking Guinness’ record of the largest water balloon fight, which the entire community could participate in.
It was an all-day event starting with a carnival that began at noon. There were a number of booths in which attendees could sample a variety of different treats and services as well as enjoy the musical sounds of local band Kelulu.
Kids had the chance to play in the bounce houses that were set up and take a chance at making it to the top of the rock climbing wall.
“There is more fun than you can shake a stick at!” said the band director, Randy Bennett.
Bennett added that they were hoping to achieve a goal of 5,000 participating water balloon fighters in order to snag Guinness’ record of 3,902 from Brigham Young University’s successful attempt, which they earned back in July.
The water balloon battle started around 6 p.m. Those who wished to participate in the event were required to make a donation of $5, for which they recieved a coupon for a free chicken sandwich courtesty of Chick-fil-A and a free Chick-fil-A t-shirt intended as a pass into the event.
From there, they entered the temporary fenced-in water balloon battlefield and were counted into the record-breaking effort.
The whole event was the brainchild of project coordinator Mary Osburn, who came up with the idea of attempting to the break the Guinness world record as an extended challenge to the fundraising effort in the works.
Students stayed busy the entire day by filling water balloons for the event, which started at 7:30 a.m.
They were worked well into the late afternoon in order to provide enough water balloon ammunition for all participating in the event later that evening.
Student band members said that the project took months to prepare for and that it had even been a bit of a task trying to gain the attention of Guinness in order to secure that the attempt would officially be recorded.
After the last balloon had taken flight, the result was at a total of only 2,332 acting participants in the attempt, and by missing the mark by that much the participants allowed Brigham Young University to maintain the record for now. There was some disappointment with the failure to break the Guinness record, but the music program will benefit in the raising of funds from the event.
When approached with the question of whether she was happy with the outcome despite the world record, Osburn concluded without hesitation that, yes, she was satisfied with the event’s overall turnout.