SKOWHEGAN — It’s official, Skowhegan has a world record to call its own.
The town of Skowhegan and Main Street Skowhegan received confirmation Wednesday from Guinness World Records that they had set the new world record for the most people moose calling simultaneously.
The record was established on June 9, 2018, at the Skowhegan Moose Festival at the state fairgrounds when 1,054 people joined in the world record attempt led by Roger Lambert, a registered Maine guide.
For more than 30 seconds, the men, women and children who packed the grandstand belted out a collective nasal groan, seeking to break the Guinness World Record for moose calling.
Maaaaaaaaaaaaa, was the call.
The record attempt was seen by many people on local and regional news outlets, and a video of the event generated more than 16,000 views on the Skowhegan Moose Festival Facebook page.
“The Skowhegan Moose Festival was a huge success and this world record is the icing on the cake,” Main Street Executive Director Kristina Cannon said Wednesday in a news release. “To us, it is about so much more than just the people who were counted. So many people and organizations and businesses were involved in festival planning and execution.
“From our sponsors to our volunteers, this event and record wouldn’t have happened without them. This recognition is a great way to celebrate Skowhegan and all that it has to offer. As a community, we are thrilled to hold this world record.”
Organizers and sponsors of the Skowhegan Moose Festival gather around the certificate from Guinness World Records marking the record-setting moose call.
The event hosted by Main Street Skowhegan attracted an estimated 6,000 people from across 13 states to the weekend festival in June.
The review process at Guinness World Records took eight months to verify the exact number of people who were calling simultaneously in the grandstand of the Skowhegan Fairgrounds.
Organizers said the 6,000 people who attended the festival set a new attendance record for the event.
Lambert asked the fairgrounds audience to listen to him do a moose call and then do one themselves. He said callers could pinch their noses if they wanted to. The audience blared out their best cow call, and it was a record.
The audience had to have a minimum of 995 people to set the record.
The 2018 Skowhegan Moose Festival was a three-day event with a range of activities for all ages, including adult and child moose-calling competitions, hunting and fly-fishing demonstrations and seminars with sporting experts, plus vendors, outdoor retailers, food trucks, and a Phil Vassar concert.
It featured a sit-down maple breakfast in Constitution Hall, followed by horse-drawn wagon rides, live music by the Old Liberty String Band, outdoor activities for children and archery and BB-gun ranges.
The three-day festival also was the setting for the annual Maine Moose Permit Lottery conducted by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, which administers a drawing to select winners of Maine moose hunting permits. To hunt moose in Maine, hunters must have one of the special permits, which are limited in order to promote a healthy moose population in the state, organizers said.
In 2017, 2,080 hunters came away with permits. In 2018, 2,500 names were drawn in the random-chance lottery from a pool of over 54,000 applicants.
The 2018 Moose Festival was supported by leading sponsors Cabela’s, Hight Family of Dealerships and other partners including the Maine Office of Tourism and the Kennebec Valley Tourism Council, as well as many local businesses.
A community celebration is scheduled for noon to 3 p.m. Friday at Main Street Skowhegan’s office at 48 Court St. in Skowhegan. Participants will be able to take a photo with the official certificate from Guinness World Records. Main Street Skowhegan also will provide a printed copy to people who come to the celebration.
Doug Harlow can be contacted at 612-2367 or at:
dharlow@centralmaine.com
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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