What better way to honor the real-life heroes of the military than with a tribute by one of the most iconic superheroes of all time?
That's what British fancy dress company Escapade had in mind with its recent record attempt for the largest gathering of people dressed as Spider-Man, to benefit the military veteran charity Help for Heroes.
Except for an attempt this big, just a handful of superheroes wouldn't cut it, and so Escapade gathered 398 of the famous webslingers at Student Central's Fresher's Fayre to make history.
"I knew of this a long time ago, I even put it in my calendar," said Student Central member and PhD student Erik Pazos. "Ever since my mother got me my first Guinness Book of World Records in the year 2000, I’ve always wanted to help make a Guinness World Record and I was just so excited that we were given a chance to do this."
Following their successful record-breaking event for the largest gathering of people dressed as Superman in 2013 (867, also raising money and awareness for Help for Heroes), this timeEscapade provided each participant with an officially licensed, Marvel Comics Spider-Man costume. In turn, several hundred pounds were raised for Britain’s leading armed forces charity.
Complete with a gravity-defying corde lisse aerial show, the night featured competitions involving crowd participation and an unexpected flash-mob dance routine, providinga full evening of entertainment surrounding the record attempt.
Interest surrounding the event had been considerable, including support from none other thanNicholas Hammond - star of the 1977 live action series The Amazing Spider-Man - who re-tweetedEscapade’s event and their donation of free Spider-Man costumes to the night’s participants.
@Escapade_UK@HelpforHeroes my pleasure. Good luck!
— Nicholas Hammond (@nicholasham1) September 29, 2014"We are thoroughly delighted with the outcome of the event. We had an overwhelming number ofpeople come and join in to help set this new record title," said Bhupendra Maisuria, Managing Director of Escapade. "It was such a fun evening that supported our student community, who all put an astounding effort in to raise awareness for Help for Heroes.We hope to holdmany more events like this in the future."
