Plans to smash a world record in Aberdeen have scared an English town into postponing their attempt to break the same record.
On December 6 Aberdeen is looking to host the longest ever Christmas cracker pulling chain.
Wellington, in Somerset, England, which has tried to break the record on three previous occasions was hoping to incorporate their latest attempt into their Christmas light switch on on Saturday, November 22, however, the organisers cancelled their attempt when they discovered Aberdeen has set itself a more ambitious target to break the same record on Saturday, December 6.
Organisers of the Wellington attempt plan to wait and see how the Aberdeen event fairs in setting a new record. A spokesperson from the Wellington organising team said, “This decision was not made lightly but rest assured it is a postponement.”
Wellington will now launch their attempt on December 20, more than two weeks after Aberdeen’s attempt which takes place in the Bon Accord Shopping centre at 1pm on Saturday 6 December.
The event in the Granite City is being staged by VisitAberdeen as part of a drive to promote the city for festive breaks, and VisitAberdeen is appealing for cracker pullers to turn out in force to smash the current world record which stands at 749 set by Brindleyplace, Birmingham.
The human chain of simultaneous cracker snappers will take place in the Bon Accord Centre atrium, with registration beginning at 12pm and the countdown to the ‘big bang’ taking place at 1pm.
Steve Harris, Chief Executive of VisitAberdeen, says, “When we started planning the Christmas Cracker world record attempt at the start of the summer we had no idea that anyone else was also vying to set a new record – all we knew was 749 was the number we needed to beat to get in the record books.
“When we heard that Wellington were also going for the record I was excited – it makes it an even bigger challenge, and I think some friendly competition is good. I wish Wellington good luck in their attempt, and it means that we will have to pull out all the stops here in Aberdeen – I have no doubt that the people of Aberdeen will rally together to help put the region on the map as the new world record holders.”
People who would like to take part in the record attempt are invited to follow the event on Facebook and Twitter and can keep up to date with the record attempt at
facebook.com/crackerrecord
and on @CrackerRecord.