Quantity, size, outfits ... The municipality of Umpeau near Chartres (France) is taking on a crazy challenge to unite its residents: it wants to set three unusual world records involving garden gnomes.
It is a crazy and funny bet inspired by the garden gnome. The Umpeau festival committee has set itself a major challenge: it wants to break three world records involving garden gnomes at its 2024 spring festival. And preparations are underway.
"For the Christmas season, we set up the Le Lutin Unipélien Facebook page and encouraged residents to place gnomes in their gardens," says Laurent Pradié, who launched the project. "It worked very well; we even sang Christmas carols under people's windows." Following this success, he now wants to make Umpeau the garden gnome capital. To do this, three world records must be broken!
Three records, nothing else!
First challenge: building a garden gnome over 8 meters tall. The record to be broken has been held since 2019 by Canadian Ron Hale, who erected a 7.91 m tall figure. "We already have associations helping us model the project and companies for the core of the giant gnome's structure," says Laurent Pradié. Papier-mâché, an iron structure, or a permanent construction—the festival committee will decide by the end of the year which option it prefers to achieve its goal.
Second record: a gathering of more than 530 people dressed as garden gnomes. This record has belonged to Brest (Finistère) since 2017. "This is the most charming and funniest challenge you can imagine. We have a good chance of doing it, even though there are only 400 people in the village. We already have reservations," Laurent Pradié smiles. Participants must wear a hat and overalls, carry a beard (optional), and equip themselves with gardening tools. On the big day, a bailiff will be present to declare the world record valid or not.
The final challenge is certainly the hardest to achieve: presenting the largest collection. Umpeau must display more than 2,042 garden gnomes to break the record held by British collector Ann Atkins. So far, the festival committee has only gathered just under 100 figures.