British university falls short of Smurf gathering world record

March 4, 2008

Despite two months of preparation, a Smurf party held by the University of Southampton's student union ended without a record. While 720 came to The Cube nightclub in blue bodypaint, and with a white hat and pants, they missed the mark by 164 people.

On February 18, Chester University attracted 884 students to their event, but newspapers and organizers apparently overlooked this record attempt. It generally takes a few months for the Guinness World Record organization to formally acknowledge achievements as being official.

The Southampton event was to raise cash for the Prince's Trust's "World Wealth Creation Challenge". The competition pits ten United Kingdom universities against each other, to raise as much money between November 2007 and March 2008.

The previous record of 451 people was set by Warwick University in 2007.

While The Smurfs television series made the characters known in the English-speaking world, when it debuted in the 1980s, they actually began 50 years ago in the Belgian comics magazine Le Journal de Spirou.