World Record Setting Weekend
Tuesday, September 6th, 2005Four years ago on Labor Day weekend a highly unusual group of individuals gathered in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to celebrate the colorful and freakish world that is Sideshow. The First Annual Sideshow Gathering brought together a most eclectic group of individuals and displays - giants and midgets, body modifiers, performers, artists and even displays of freak animals. Amidst the freakery was a newly born organization - the Sword Swallowers’ Association International - an organization that I co-founded. We proposed something both remarkable and absurd that weekend; to gather together the most sword swallowers ever in one location and to swallow the most swords ever swallowed at one time. We did just that.
With 19 of the world’s 50 odd sword swallowers flying in from around the globe we managed to collectively swallow 50 swords on stage that night. It was such an unusual event that it caught the attention of a wide array of media and allowed us to secure a Guinness World Record for our efforts.
