By Olivia Senter

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The Christian Student Fellowship broke a world record Friday night by hosting a water balloon fight with 238,174 water balloons.

About 11,000 people gathered on the William H. Pieratt Intramural Fields next to the Johnson Recreation Center to take part in the record-breaking balloon brawl.

Just after midnight, the whistles were blown and thousands of people rushed toward the center of the field where the balloons were laid.

In a matter of minutes the balloons disappeared, but the crowd continued to celebrate to the music that could be heard all over campus.

Since 2008, the water balloon fight has attracted people from not only UK, but from other universities and states as well. College students, high school students and families all joined in the fight.

Cassidy Norman, a nursing freshman at Eastern Kentucky University, said she heard about the fight while living in Illinois and wanted to attend.

Michael Soder, a political science freshman from Transylvania University, said he and his friends decided to come because he heard so many people talking about it.

“I wanted to experience the atmosphere everyone had been telling me about,” Soder said.

About 400 organizers and volunteers were on the field until just after 3 a.m. picking up remnants of the thousands of balloons used in the fight, said Brian Marshall, lead campus minister for CSF.

CSF added nearly 2,000 balloons to this year’s total compared to last year, but not as many people attended, Marshall said.

CSF promoted donating to raise funds to build a well in Africa through an organization called charity: water.

Students could choose to be emailed a link to donate to the organization.

In February of 2014 the CSF will decide whether or not to organize the event for next year.