Each year for 16 years now Leszek Cichonski—founder of the Guitar Guinness World Record Festival (formerly, the Thanks Jimi Festival)—puts out the call for players to come to Wroclaw, Poland, and attempt to smash the Guinness Record for Largest Guitar Orchestra. The last time this happened was in 2016, when 7,356 guitarists descended on the city’s beautiful Market Square to capture the title. The guitar army fell a bit short last year, amassing 6,299 players, and missing the opportunity to break its own record.
As the largest guitar festival in Europe, the Guitar Guinness World Record event attracts fans from all over Poland and Europe. This is what 7,000+ guitar fans look like.
This year was a different story.
When Cichonski and Wroclaw President (“mayor” in USA parlance) Rafal Dutkiewicz announced the official results, the jubilant outcry was tremendous. The 2018 festival had logged 7,411 players. Mission accomplished! Record smashed!
The record attempt is always undertaken on May 1, by performing a communal version of “Hey Joe,” as the song’s simple chord progression is repeated over and over, making it simple for guitarists of all skill levels to join in the fun. (The festival also posts “how-to’s” on its website.) The massive guitar task force is full of little children, teens, Millennials, senior citizens, policja (police—some on horseback with guitars), Star Wars stormtroopers, clowns, various strummers in animal costumes, and even normal, everyday people—all bearing everything from battered acoustics to prized instruments and unplugged electrics. Typically, there is a run-through of the song, and then the big moment is launched for the record books.
But the day-long festival isn’t just about breaking a Guinness record. It’s pretty much a titanic celebration of the guitar and guitar music that includes rehearsals, performances, and special events on the main stage