This year at the Old Fiddler’s Convention in Galax, VA we will be attempting to take back the Guinness Book World’s record for the Largest Mandolin Ensemble in the history of the world to Team USA on Tuesday, August 4th on the bleachers of the Galax Fiddler’s Convention. We need as many mandolin players, and people with mandolins, as we can get! (Before anyone asks, yes, Tuesday night is also the mandolin contest.)
All participants should try to be there by the 1:00 p.m. sign in time. We broke the record at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention on August 7, 2012 with 389 mandolin players. Unfortunately, since that time our record was beaten by a group in Greece who had 414 mandolins. So that is the number to beat! Please bring any extra mandolins you can as well. Also any mandolin builders out there who would like a whole lot of mandolin players to check out your mandolins all in one place might not want to miss this opportunity to bring themselves and their mandolins out!
One of the lucky participants will Blue Chip pick of their choice, some D’Addario products, or a brand new Eastman mandolin! (Thank you so much to Tim Finch and Eastman!)
Also, if we do break the World’s Record and our attempt is approved, any participant can email away to Guinness directly and get an official certificate for their wall showing that they hold a world’s record.
Only 4 tunes are needed and are also listed on the flier. Please play a simple version so we can sound good together. One can play chords or melody, so just keep playing and smiling if you make a little boo boo or something.
The tunes are:
- Soldier’s Joy in the key of D
- Angeline the Baker in the key of D
- Cripple Creek in the key of A
- Old Joe Clark in the key of A
This is a rain or shine event and will be absolutely amazing, and could very well be your 15 minutes of fame if you can play a mandolin at any level. Old time, Irish, bluegrass players, top professionals, and beginning amateurs all in a giant mandolin jam, hopefully the biggest the world has ever and will ever see! No one would want to miss that, right?
There is a Facebook page for the event too so join that to get potential updates.
Here is a clip from some of the fun last time we made history.
Let’s get enough mandolins out there that the US will stand unchallenged for years to come!
