The little blue characters, imagined by the Belgian designer Peyo, have not finished being emulated. In Landerneau, many dressed up on March 25 to renew a feat, namely to bring together the greatest number of smurfs, hoping that the record will be validated by the Guinness Book.
Decorated shops, passers-by made up in blue: thousands of smurfs converged on Landerneau (Finistère) on Saturday March 25. Not to demonstrate against pension reform, nor against Papa Smurf, but for a new world record attempt, after the one that made the buzz in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic.
“It’s a demonstration for the joy of living. We really hope to explode the counter”smiles Christelle Merour, 50, in her hairdressing salon, where all the employees are disguised as the famous characters of the Belgian author Peyo.
“Having these kind of small events, it does people good, it gives balm to the heart. If people are having fun, that’s the main thing”adds Morgane Derrien, 25, also disguised as a smurfette by her side.
Bodies and faces painted blue, pants and caps white or red: smurfs, smurfettes or papa smurfs began to gather at the start of the afternoon in the small Breton town (16,000 inhabitants), 25 km east of east of Brest. Many merchants have lent themselves to the game by decorating their windows with Smurf figurines, comics or stickers.
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“The Smurfs represent an image of cheerfulness and it’s easy to dress up. You don’t have to buy a costume”boasts Jules Lesieur, co-president of the organizing association of the Landerneau carnival, to explain the popularity of this gathering, the second of its kind in three years.
A record to “smurf”
Officially, it is still the small German town of Lauchringen, on the German-Swiss border, which holds the world record for the largest gathering of Smurfs, with 2,762 participants on February 16, 2019.
A year later, on March 7, 2020, Landerneau had however broken this record by welcoming 3,549 Smurfs. But the feat had not been validated by the Guinness Book, due to a missing document, according to the organizers.
Unapproved, the 2020 attempt nevertheless made noise in Landerneau… and beyond the Alps. Some media in Italy, where 60 million people were then confined in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, had criticized a demonstration “irresponsible”.
“We must not stop living either as long as we can, it was an opportunity to also say that we are alive!”, had defended Patrick Leclerc, various right mayor of Landerneau. It was only the day after the rally that the prefect of Finistère had banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people.
The video of the rally had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The world record attempt, intended to publicize the Landerneau festival, had “exceeded all our expectations”, told AFP Alain Péron, one of the organizers of the event. Before Germany, the previous record was held by Welsh students, who set it at 2,510 participants in 2009 in Swansea, according to the Guinness World Records website.