Watch: High turnout turns dino record attempt into Tyrannosaurus wreck
May 15 (UPI) — A Canadian city's attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as dinosaurs was disqualified due to the unexpectedly high turnout.
Travel Drumheller, the tourism organization for the Town of Drumheller, Alberta, said in a Facebook post that the April 27 record attempt in the city's downtown attracted more than 3,000 people in dino-dress, but officials "could not obtain an exact measurement" of participants.
Keri Looijen, marketing manager for Travel Drumheller, said a Guinness World Records adjudicator was present during the attempt.
"He recorded 3,000 people through numbered bracelets or wristbands, which far exceeded what we had originally thought," Looijen told CBC News.
She said photos and videos from the attempt indicate there may have been "close to double" that number of people, but an accurate count could not be obtained due to officials being unprepared for such a massive turnout.
"We weren't entirely prepared for that many people to come," Looijen said. "Guinness said that there were people that they had witnessed leaving the area after they had been wrist-banded, so they weren't following what the volunteers had told them by staying in the space. They had to be all together in the area for one solid minute."
The attempt was disqualified, despite very handily beating the current record of 252 people, which was set in Los Angeles in 2019.
Looijen said the city is hoping to make the "Jurassic Jamboree" an annual event, and it will be better prepared for the next official world record attempt.
