Fashionistas, drummers and Candy Crushers... October's People Power round-up
This October, more than 2.27 million people were acknowledged by Guinness World Records for their part in breaking or setting a world record.
This incredible figure - more people than the entire population of Slovenia or Latvia - once again demonstrates the effectiveness of People Power to bring together families, friends, colleagues, schools, towns, cities and even entire countries to achieve something remarkable.
Topping the chart of biggest People Power moments of the month was a celebration by the KBS Busan Singing Class of South Korea. This educational effort earned two GWR certificates for singing lessons held at a single venue, for the largest cumulative attendance (1,881,100 people since 13 August 2013) and largest annual attendance (210,989 last year).
But even discounting these South Korean cumulative outliers, October still saw more than 180,000 people taking part in successful Guinness World Records attempts. That’s an average of nearly 6,000 people every single day this past month!
Let’s check out some of the highlights.
Moving as one
46,128 dancers... performed the same dance
Vadodara Municipal Corporation and United Way of Baroda filled a farm in Gujarat, India, with dancers for the largest Garba dance ever staged, with folk singer Atul Purohit (Atul Dada) providing the soundtrack. Garba is a traditional part of Navratri, the nine-night festival for the goddess Durga, and dancers move in circles around a lit clay pot or an image of the goddess. So important is this dance to the region that UNESCO added it to its heritage list in 2023.
Among the synchronized swayers were almost 3,000 students who formed four huge circles standing for the city’s heritage, cleanliness, women’s empowerment and hopes for India’s future. Adjudicator Rishi Nath called the scale remarkable, and Vadodara’s commissioner said the title belongs to every citizen of the city.
30,034 colleagues... walked halfway to the Moon!
On 1 October, Deutsche Bank employees in Germany heard the good news that they’d broken a record for working (and walking) together: the most participants in an around-the-world distance team challenge in 24 hours. Over a single day, the team took part in a team-building campaign called “Together We Push Further”, in which they logged an accumulated 304,883,456 steps and covered 217,991 km (135,453 miles). That’s more than five times the circumference of the Earth and over halfway to the Moon! The internal event was open to employees of all fitness levels, with one ultra marathon runner covering 82 km (61 miles) alone! Plenty of others just walked their usual routes, and every step counted toward the total.
3,703 service members... pushed up together
The following day, the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, reclaimed the title for the most people doing push-ups simultaneously from the US Naval Academy. The Navy's previous benchmark of 3,068 people had stood since October 2025, when it beat the Air Force's 2,926 from 2023, so it’s a nice reminder that a healthy rivalry can be a team sport too!
See also Largest Jota dance • Most high-fives while completing a marathon • Most run clubs hosted in different cities by an individual • Greatest simulated distance static-cycling in 8 hours by a team • Most people performing the crescent moon yoga pose
Music, lessons and passing things on
2,880 dhol-drummers... drummed
On 9 October, the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs of the Government of West Bengal organized nearly 3,000 people to play dhols, the double-headed drum commonly associated with bhangra. Playing together at Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata, the drummers “beat” the record for largest dhol-drum ensemble by bettering the figure of 2,651 set in Assam in 2023... and presumably made the whole city rattle!
61,221 students... promised to learn CPR
Staying in India, Apollo Hospitals’ Navi Mumbai team sent paramedics into schools, colleges and housing communities with training dummies. Students learned how to perform chest compressions then signed pledge forms promising to learn the vital first-aid skill of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. In a single month, the total number of pledges reached 61,221, the most one organization has collected in this time period, and more than enough to break the record for most pledged received to learn CPR in one month. Senior Adjudicator Swapnil Dangarikar pointed out that the cause mattered more than the title, and that young people picking up skills like this early is good news for everyone.
73,496 brainiacs... crunched the numbers
There are record-worthy competitions for all manner of subjects – cheerleading, grape-spitting and rock-paper-scissors, to name just three – and on 7 October a new world champion emerged from another such unexpected contest: the world’s largest finance competition! The 6th annual WorldQuant BRAIN International Quant Championships attracted more than 150,000 registrations from 167 countries, with entrants tasked with developing mathematical models, known as “alphas”, to predict movements in financial markets. Out of the 73,496 people who competed, the eventual winner, a participant from Nigeria, overcame power outages, internet connectivity problems and visa difficulties to claim the championship title.
13,424 people... tasted olive oil
See also: Most people blowing conch shells • Most pledges received for a hydration-awareness campaign in one month • Most people launching model rockets in 8 hours
Showing up
3,618 fashionistas... coordinated!
Designer RC Caylan brought this year's ArtPrize festival to a close in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a floral-inspired collection, accompanied by live performances from ballet dancers, opera singers and orchestra; instrumentalists. The appreciative crowd, which included actor Bryan Cranston (pictured below), was officially the largest attendance at a fashion show, beating the figure of 3,131 people from Surat, India. GWR Adjudicator Chloe McCarthy, who grew up in Michigan, praised the city’s welcoming spirit.
493 oenophiles... “herd” it on the grapevine
On 3 October, Moldova’s national wine office organized the largest human image of a grapevine in Chișinău. It was part of the 25th National Wine Day, themed “United by Wine”, which brought together more than 100 wineries. Participants stood shoulder to shoulder in four colours, one for each part of the plant, across a patch of ground measuring 40.5 x 18.8 m (133 x 61 ft) - that's about twice the length of a bowling lane. Cheers!
424 people... made a spectacle of themselves
On 22 October, Nikon Lenswear Partners (Japan) packed Tokyo’s National Noh Theatre with staff, customers and business partners to attempt the record for the most people wearing a pair of prescription/fashion glasses simultaneously. The event celebrated 80 years since Nikon’s first ophthalmic lens, the Pointal Lens of 1946, which arrived two years before the company’s first camera.
150 grillers... got cooking
Also in Japan, the port town of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture was sizzling with activity as locals and volunteers from the surrounding area gathered for the Onagawa Autumn Harvest Festival. On 11 October, some 150 volunteer cooks fired up an impressive 34 m (111 ft) of barbecue grills to prepare a seasonal favourite: Pacific saury (Cololabis saira), better known as sanma – literally "autumn knife fish", a nod to its slender, katana-shaped body. Working along the grills like a well-oiled conveyor belt, the team cooked and served the charcoal-grilled delicacy in a bid to break the record for most grilled fish served in 8 hours. By the end of the marathon cookout, an astonishing 11,489 fish had been dished up – so many, in fact, that the organizers temporarily ran out of plates!
1,146 casual gamers… played Candy Crush Saga
On 7 October, King Digital Entertainment sweet-talked over 1,000 of their employees into playing their addictive bonbon-bashing game at once at PortAventura World in Tarragona, Spain – the most people playing a mobile phone game simultaneously. “Mobile games put fun in people’s hands every day, all over the world,” said King’s President, Todd Green. “So with 1,146 Kingsters in one place, we thought: why just play Candy Crush Saga when we could break a world record doing it? It’s a very King way to celebrate the people and community who make the game what it is.”
153,682 bookworms... read together online
Finally, thousands of readers from 92 countries joined forces online in a global campaign coordinated by the British Council and the UK's National Literacy Trust. Called "Take 10 to Read", the initiative promotes the wellbeing benefits of reading, and encourages everyone to spend 10 minutes reading at some point during the week of World Mental Health Day, which falls on 10 October. This year saw more than 153,000 people take part, from individuals to entire schools, setting the record for the most people reading online in 12 hours. As the publisher of some of the world's biggest-selling books, we were honoured for the chance to adjudicate this one!
See also: Largest human image of a tilak • Most cheesecakes sold online in one hour • Most people slicing meat • Largest sandwich-making lesson
BE PART OF IT
Now it’s your turn! Every one of these People Power events began with someone having a dream and convincing others to do something unlikely together. What’s your amazing? A lesson? A musical ensemble? A cultural gathering? Whatever it is, be inspired by the positive change people like you are making to the world and set your own People Power challenge. Apply now!
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