Sunday 26th of June saw the end of the Golowan Festival. The festival began in the early 1800s and was one of the last midsummer festivals practiced in Cornwall. In the 1890s, the Penzance government banned the festival because of the rising insurance premiums needed from the town’s business community. This years finale was certainly spectacular with a world record attempt organised on the Penzance promenade.
The challenge was to get the most amount of people dressed as pirates in one place at the same time. The previous record (2010) was held by Hastings in East Sussex were a whooping 6,166 pirates attended.
Penzance had all sorts turn out for the event, from full blown Johnny Depp (Captain Jack Sparrow) lookalikes, kids wearing stripy t-shirts to dogs (although the dogs weren’t counted).
All of the attendees of the event were asked to contribute a small donation that was given to charity.
The sun was beating down and it almost felt like you were really in the Caribbean, a total of 8,734 people in fancy dress assembled on Penzance promenade meaning the Cornish smashed the Hastings record. Organisers of the event have said they’ve gathered evidence of the number of people who took part in the record attempt to send to the Guinness Book of Records organisation in the hope of getting official recognition.
Well done Cornwall and thank you to everyone that attended.
Photo from BBC Spotlight