Falling into Past – a Journey around the World

A new and larger location in Büdingen
Remember back in January, when the first attempt to build the world’s longest domino wall decided to completely collapse on its own accord as the audience was being welcomed? When they walked into the Wilhelm-Lückert-Halle in Büdingen on Friday evening, many of the spectators could probably still hear the dominoes from back then crashing down in their ears. This year, the event was brought to the German town of Büdingen for the first time with the support of the regional energy provider OVAG, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The hall in Büdingen offers three times as much space as the previous location in Kefenrod and also provides a grandstand for the increasing number of visitors and media representatives wanting to view such domino spectacles. At this event, the record attempts were also supported by domino experts from Austria for the first time.

The motto: “Falling into Past”
Under the motto “Falling into Past – a Journey around the World”, well-known historical events and symbols from various countries around the world were depicted in a domino construction containing 128,000 individual pieces. Asia, for example, was represented by the yin and yang symbol, another structure depicted America’s “Black Friday” financial crisis and Germany was once again reunited by a mini reconstruction of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Other features included the Colosseum in Rome, a portrait of the South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and an Arctic landscape.

Challenging world record attempts
The certified notary Richard Trunk from Büdingen oversaw the world record attempts for the Guinness World Records that were incorporated into the chain reaction: a 30-metre-long and one-metre-tall construction was a new attempt to achieve the “Longest domino wall” and 13,486 dominoes had been used to build the “Largest 3D domino pyramid”.

After Anne Naumann from OVAG kicked off the chain reaction, it soon became apparent that both records could indeed be broken on the same day. For a split second, however, the loud crashing down of exactly 31,405 dominoes in the 30-metre-long wall came to a standstill before thankfully continuing just a moment later. The “Largest 3D pyramid” also toppled completely. This was particularly pleasing for the record-breaking team, for which the pyramid had proven to be a special challenge during the construction process. In fact, just 48 hours before the event, a small construction error had almost made the entire project impossible. Only the strength of nerve of Julian Kaufmann, one of the ten builders in the Sinners Domino Entertainment Team, allowed the final dominoes to be placed on the pyramid just in time for the arrival of the event’s spectators.

The next record attempt is planned to take place in summer 2013.

The highlights:

• More than 100,000 dominoes constructed for the first time ever
• A new world record for the “Longest domino wall”
• A new world record for the “Largest 3D domino pyramid”
• A new larger location in Büdingen

More information and press coverage:

DailyMail (EN): Domino chain tour of the world topples a record breaking 125,000 bricks

Guinness World Records (EN): Images of the Week