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Saturday, Oct 27, 2007
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Strumming their way into Guinness

Sushanta Talukdar

— Photo: PTI

FOR A RECORD: A view of the gathering of 1730 guitar players from all over the northeast region, in Shillong on Friday.

Guwahati: A band of 1,730 guitarists performed a six-minute long strumming session in Shillong on Friday to make an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest guitar ensemble.

Previous record

The group, “Rhythms of Meghalaya” topped the previous Guinness record of a band of 1,721 guitarists at Kansas in the U.S. The guitarists strummed Bob Dylan’s popular number “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” The lead guitarists were drawn from bands in Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram.

Meghalaya Director-General of Police B.K. Dey Sawian, one of the two judges, announced the final figure of headcount of performers after the strumming session was over at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The organisers—the Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum—will now send the audio and video recordings of the performance and other documentation to the Guinness authorities.

Drummers’ record

Shillong drummed its way into the Guinness Book of World Records last year. Drummers, numbering 7951, set a world record of the largest ensemble of drummers. They performed for more than five minutes. It also marked the beginning of a 10-day long autumn festival in Shillong.

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