World record attempt during park party

The annual Ficifolia Festival combines the very best of what Drouin and the surrounding community has to offer and this year, it’s bigger than ever, with a Guinness world record attempt on the cards.

This year, the Anglican Parish of Drouin will be attempting to break the record held by the National Trust in the United Kingdom. The record, the most amount of people to roll down a hill in an hour, with the current record standing at 570 regulation rolls, set in July 2014.

Each group will be needing an unbiased volunteer to verify that the roll taking place is regulation. There won’t be a Guinness world record representative on hand, so photos and recorded rolls will be sent for analysis, with the record to be named successful or unsuccessful a few months later in June.

Libby Willems from the Parish said that the record attempt started as a bit of a spontaneous thought.

“It was definitely a spontaneous thought we had, we saw the record and thought it would be a fun one to attempt, and something we think we can break,” she said.

The event isn’t just meant to put Drouin on the Guinness World record map, but also a way to continue to build the community, helping to bring people together to achieve a common goal.

“We want to see the whole community come together and support the town in this,” said Mrs Willems. “It’s a great event and hopefully we get a big turnout, we really want to get 1000 regulation rolls.”

With 571 rolls needed to break the record, the Anglican Parish is encouraging as many people as possible to register before the event, so time isn’t taken up by registrations on the day. However, Mrs Willems said that registering on the day was still available.

The event will take place in Drouin’s Civic Park, with rollers tumbling down the hill towards the soundshell between 6pm-7pm, with Mrs Willems encouraging as many locals to come down as possible.

“It will be a really great event, so we hope to see as many down there as we can, pack a picnic or dinner and come down and participate or watch, it would be great to see you there,” she said.

The world record attempt is another event that is being put on to celebrate the annual Ficifolia Festival that is running from February 9 to 17.

For more information on the hill roll, you can visit the Facebook event, or the Ficifolia Festival website.