Repost This ArticleBack in February of this year, 40,000 Mexicans gathered in the Zocalo, Mexico City’s main plaza, for a massive kiss-in, setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of people to gather together for a big collective kiss.
Still high from setting one record, they gathered again this weekend, this time to set a different record: the largest number of people to gather together simultaneously in a single place to re-enact Michael Jackson’s video for the song “Thriller.”
While New Yorkers were gathering in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park to celebrate the late pop star’s birthday in a bash sponsored by the film director Spike Lee, Mexicans gathered at the Monument of the Revolution in full Jackson regalia: black fedoras, aviator sunglasses, and bloody make-up, according to NPR’s Mexico City correspondent, Jason Beaubien.
It didn’t take much to break the existing record, which was set by 242 people at the College of William and Mary earlier this year.
An estimated 12,000-13,000 people showed up to dance, while as many as 40,000 more showed up to watch.
While the Guinness officials convene to ensure whether all of the dancers performed the song from start to finish, you can check out some video footage from the event:
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Interested in bizarre record-breaking feats? Peru won the world’s largest ceviche title earlier this year, and Anandita Dutta Tamuly won a Guinness title for downing the most hot chiles –51–in less than a minute. I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather moonwalk.
Julie Schwietert
Julie Schwietert Collazo is a writer, editor, researcher, and translator currently in New York, formerly of Mexico City and San Juan.
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Geeeeeeeeez, I love Mexico!
This Thriller re-enactment stuff is quite the phenomenon. I know there’s a group trying to break the record in Seattle, too.
If I had known about this I would have flown out to Mexico just to do this, looks amazing, kudos to Mexico City residents and the council for doing this.
Megan-
And Mexico City was just one of the cities in Mexico that had thousands show up!
craziness! The dance isn’t easy, either.
I wondered if the untimely death of Michael Jackson was going to inspire something like this. I’ve been checking out this site: http://thrilltheworld.com/. There will be people “Thrilling” all over the world on October 24/25th! I’ll be at the San Francisco one this year!
I go to William and Mary. We had the spotlight for so brief a time! But this is awesome, so I can’t complain so much.