Organizers in a small town in western France estimated that there were more than 3, 000 smurf-costumed people gathered in one location, breaking the world record for the number.
Landerneau, a town in France’s far west, had twice tried to wrest the record from Lauchringen, a town in Germany that managed to gather together a seemingly unassailable 2, 762 smurfs in 2019, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
The French rivals, however, gathered 3, 076 people wearing white hats, slapping blue, and singing smurfy songs on Saturday to finally pulverize that record.
One participant remarked, “We smurfed the record.”
Smurfs, which were created in the forest by Belgian cartoonist Peyo in 1958 and are known as “Schtroumpfs” in French, are tiny, human-like creatures.
The entertaining characters have grown into a significant franchise, which includes movies, television shows, commercials, video games, theme parks, and toys.
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“A friend of mine encouraged me to join, and I said, “Why not?” “,” said Simone Pronost, 82, who was dressed as a smurfette while sipping a beer on a cafe’s terrace.
More than 200 kilometers (125 miles) away, the student, age 20, Albane Delariviere, made the journey to join.
We thought Landerneau would benefit greatly from this, she said.
Mayor of Landerneau Patrick Leclerc, who is also dressed in full smurf, said the initiative “brings people together and gives them something else to think about than the times we’re living in.”
The gathering, according to Pascal Soun, the association’s president, “allows people to have fun and enter an imaginary world for a few hours.”
After the previous record attempt in 2023 was sunk by heavy rain that kept many contestants away, contestants were relieved that the weather was favorable.
A missing document caused Guinness World Records to invalidate an initial successful bid for more than 3,500 smurfs in 2020 due to a technicality.
Smurf enthusiasts in Landerneau were on the verge of giving up, but Paramount, a film production company, persuaded them to give it another shot.
Source: Channels TV
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