The 80thGalax Old Fiddlers’ Convention begins next Monday, August 3. On day two, Tuesday, of this year’s week long convention, hundreds of musicians will attempt to assemble the world’s largest mandolin ensemble.
Sound: “One, two, three, play.” (followed by hundreds of mandolins playing “Old Joe Clark.”)
That is the sound of 389 mandolins playing “Old Joe Clark” in the grandstands at Felts Park, home of The Galax Old Fiddlers’ convention.
Sound: cheering
That is the sound of 389 mandolin players realizing they’re part of the world’s largest mandolin ensemble. It took a while for the Guinness people – official arbiters of bar bets around the world – to certify the accomplishment, but they did. Unfortunately for the mandolin players who gathered on that early August Tuesday in 2012, a 414-mandolin ensemble assembled in Greece has since claimed the record. Tara Linhardt wants the record back in Galax.
“So, if we’re going to take the record, we’re going to have to have at least 415 mandolins. But hopefully we can get five or six hundred people out there with mandolins and get a record no one can break.”
Earning a Guinness world record requires press coverage and witnesses and videos and photographs and audio and paperwork. And, in this case, a lot of mandolins and a lot of mandolin players who can play or strum four basic songs. When the strumming’s done, every participant can, for a fee, get a certificate from Guinness attesting to their accomplishment.
“A lot of people that were at the last record-setting mandolin ensemble now have a Guinness certificate on their wall. I do, too.”
Linhardt got the idea for a world record mandolin ensemble after she took part in a failed attempt at a world record ukulele group. It would be better if the ukuleles were mandolins, she thought. And it would be better at Galax.
“If we did this with mandolins at Galax, everyone would be able to play their instrument and we would sound good.”
So Linhardt called some of her picking buddies. They agreed to help organize the world’s largest mandolin band. And it was good. It brought together a lot of people who would never play music together under normal circumstances.
“There were people who played old time and people that played Irish and there were people that played B chord bluegrass and Doc Watson bluegrass and Tony Rice bluegrass that actually for one time at least in their life were all in a band together. I mean it was kind of heartwarming in a way. And then, it’s just kind of funny. Getting that many people together with mandolins is pretty funny.”
On Tuesday, August 4, at Felts Park, they’ll try to do it again.
Linhardt invites anyone who owns or can borrow a mandolin to come to Felts Park. Perfection, she says, is not required.
“You know if you do a wrong note here or there, if you think you might be messing up, just play a little quieter. There are that many people there that no one will notice.”
If you want to be part of the world's largest mandolin ensemble, registration begins at 1 p.m. Tuesday, August 4. The attempt to break the record begins at 2.
