Boston snowball fight aims to break world record.
Organizers of a snowball fight that went off at high noon on the Boston Common Sunday hoped to break the world record held by Seattle, but fell short by thousands of people.
Boston resident Emily Isenberg said Sunday that she hoped to get more than 5,800 people to turn out for the slush slinging party, but only about 300 showed up.
“We pictured this being like a flash mob snow ball fight. Sometimes it’s cool to see if the impossible can happen,” Isenberg said before the event.
Isenberg and her cohorts came up with the idea to get into the Guinness Book of World Records on Friday, just as the historic blizzard blasted the Northeast.
“I was tweeting about Seattle’s record, and how they trucked in the snow. It seemed like we would have the best opportunity to challenge it,” she said.
According to a report by the Associated Press, Seattle residents won a place in the Guinness World Records for the largest snowball fight when about 5,834 people turned out at the Seattle Center last month.
More than 30 truckloads of snow were brought in from Cascades for the event, which raised money for the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Seattle’s snowball fight beat the previous record of about 5,400 at a 2010 snowball fight in South Korea, according to the report.
The snowball fight was originally promoted with a Facebook page, but Isenberg said Facebook shut it down because the company doesn’t allow pages to promote anything that is “potentially unsafe.”
“Friday’s was a little more aggressive,” she said, referring to a snow ball fight in which a man was arrested for allegedly flinging a snow ball at a police officer.”We were looking at this snow ball fight from a Charlie Brown Peanuts perspective.”
Sunday’s event, which lasted over an hour, drew all types of participants including families and pets.
“Everyone who came seemed to have a really good time,” she said. “Maybe next time we will get the numbers.”
Follow Morgan Rousseau on Twitter: @MetroMorgan
Follow Metro Boston on Twitter: @MetroBOS
