Wet Wars

 

 

August 26, 2010

By Hope Smith

On July 23, 2010, a battlefield was constructed and the warriors lined up. 3,927 people picked their sides, grabbed some ammo, aimed for the opposition and launched their balloons over no-man’s land, shattering every last balloon within minutes.

If this sounds like the scene of a Guinness World Record, it is. BYU stole the record from UK – and UK wants it back.

During K Week, it’s not unusual to see 2,000 students lined up to enjoy free pancakes both at noon and midnight daily. This weekend, CSF will host a party on the rooftop of a parking structure, complete with disc jockey.

The religious group draws large numbers of people for unusual events, including the filling and transporting of over 125,000 water balloons. All of these happenings are the result of ideas of how to get the community together in the most fun and welcoming way possible.

“We have a lot of meetings,” said Jeremy Buchanan, CSF assistant campus minister. “Many of them are late at night, without much sleep, and we can think of some pretty ridiculous stuff.”

In 2006, Microsoft hosted the World’s Largest Water Balloon Fight in Australia to launch its newest gaming platform, the Xbox 360. 2,849 people beamed each other with 51,400 water balloons. When Buchanan and some fellow CSF members stumbled across a video of this fight online at one of their late-night meetings, they were almost certain they could break that record.

In 2008, CSF fell short of breaking the record by roughly 100 participants. In 2009, they tried again, and finally broke the record with 119,411 balloons and 3,902 participants.

It takes all summer to organize and advertise a giant water balloon fight, and just as long to fill the projected 150,000 balloons. Of those balloons, only about 125,000 will be salvageable after transportation.

Moving and securely storing thousands of water balloons is tricky business and it takes some trial and error to master the art of water balloon transport. Now that CSF is gearing up for its third big battle, organizers have found the best way to store the ammo is in trash bags stored in dry places – like in the basements of dozens of volunteers homes all over Lexington – until they can be taken to the battlefield in convoys of trucks and SUVs the day of the event.

“We count the balloons by the bags in the houses and we count them again when they get to the field because we can only count the ones that haven’t popped,” said Adam Tomberlin, CSF assistant campus minister.

But the record isn’t determined by the amount of balloons; it’s determined by the amount of people who participate. This year, just to be safe CSF wants to gather at least 4,000 people for the battle, and will then count them using numbered bracelets, Tomberlin said.

Guinness requires judges to attend the event and verify the statistics. Instead of hiring official Guinness judges for the water balloon fights, CSF prefers to have community members vouch for their records.

“Judges can be any reputable members of society, like policemen, firemen and businessmen known to be in good-standing in the community,” Buchanan said. “And they’re always very excited to do it.”

Organized chaos might be the best way to describe what CSF is dealing with up until the very last shredded rubber piece is plucked from the Johnson Center field on the morning after the fight. Thousands of balloons still need to be filled, volunteers with large vehicles are needed for transport, giant plastic sheets must be rolled out the day of the event and the word still must be spread.

As fun as they expect the fight to be, CSF organizers and volunteers know the greatest satisfactåion will come from setting a record and creating a place where people can come together and have a great time.

“We’ve seen guys sprint across the field in thongs before,” Tomberlin said. “There was one guy wearing a giant horse head one year, and we’re not really sure why… people just go all out for this.”

At 11:55pm on Aug. 27, the first balloons will fly, headed for the other side of the field. In a few minutes, when all the water has cleared, hopefully participants will be standing on top of broken pieces of rubber history. Oåne thing is for sure: the night will not be over.

“After all the balloons have burst everybody uses the giant plastic sheets we lay out as huge slip n’ slides,” Tomberlin said. “CSF is all about meeting new people and hanging out, getting to know each other. People usually stick around for a while.”

On July 23, 2010, a battlefield was constructed and the warriors lined up. 3,927 people picked their sides, grabbed some ammo, aimed for the opposition and launched their balloons over no-man’s land, shattering every last balloon within minutes. If this sounds like the scene of a Guinness World Record, it is. BYU stole the record from UK – and UK wants it back.During K Week, it’s not unusual to see 2,000 students lined up to enjoy free pancakes both at noon and midnight daily. This weekend, CSF will host a party on the rooftop of a parking structure, complete with disc jockey. The religious group draws large numbers of people for unusual events, including the filling and transporting of over 125,000 water balloons. All of these happenings are the result of ideas of how to get the community together in the most fun and welcoming way possible.“We have a lot of meetings,” said Jeremy Buchanan, CSF assistant campus minister. “Many of them are late at night, without much sleep, and we can think of some pretty ridiculous stuff.”In 2006, Microsoft hosted the World’s Largest Water Balloon Fight in Australia to launch its newest gaming platform, the Xbox 360. 2,849 people beamed each other with 51,400 water balloons. When Buchanan and some fellow CSF members stumbled across a video of this fight online at one of their late-night meetings, they were almost certain they could break that record. In 2008, CSF fell short of breaking the record by roughly 100 participants. In 2009, they tried again, and finally broke the record with 119,411 balloons and 3,902 participants.It takes all summer to organize and advertise a giant water balloon fight, and just as long to fill the projected 150,000 balloons. Of those balloons, only about 125,000 will be salvageable after transportation. Moving and securely storing thousands of water balloons is tricky business and it takes some trial and error to master the art of water balloon transport. Now that CSF is gearing up for its third big battle, organizers have found the best way to store the ammo is in trash bags stored in dry places – like in the basements of dozens of volunteers homes all over Lexington – until they can be taken to the battlefield in convoys of trucks and SUVs the day of the event.“We count the balloons by the bags in the houses and we count them again when they get to the field because we can only count the ones that haven’t popped,” said Adam Tomberlin, CSF assistant campus minister.But the record isn’t determined by the amount of balloons; it’s determined by the amount of people who participate. This year, just to be safe CSF wants to gather at least 4,000 people for the battle, and will then count them using numbered bracelets, Tomberlin said.Guinness requires judges to attend the event and verify the statistics. Instead of hiring official Guinness judges for the water balloon fights, CSF prefers to have community members vouch for their records.“Judges can be any reputable members of society, like policemen, firemen and businessmen known to be in good-standing in the community,” Buchanan said. “And they’re always very excited to do it.”Organized chaos might be the best way to describe what CSF is dealing with up until the very last shredded rubber piece is plucked from the Johnson Center field on the morning after the fight. Thousands of balloons still need to be filled, volunteers with large vehicles are needed for transport, giant plastic sheets must be rolled out the day of the event and the word still must be spread. As fun as they expect the fight to be, CSF organizers and volunteers know the greatest satisfactåion will come from setting a record and creating a place where people can come together and have a great time.“We’ve seen guys sprint across the field in thongs before,” Tomberlin said. “There was one guy wearing a giant horse head one year, and we’re not really sure why… people just go all out for this.”At 11:55pm on Aug. 27, the first balloons will fly, headed for the other side of the field. In a few minutes, when all the water has cleared, hopefully participants will be standing on top of broken pieces of rubber history. Oåne thing is for sure: the night will not be over.“After all the balloons have burst everybody uses the giant plastic sheets we lay out as huge slip n’ slides,” Tomberlin said. “CSF is all about meeting new people and hanging out, getting to know each other. People usually stick around for a while.”