Some would say, “Are you all that shocked?” And I guess I would be one of those some.

This past Saturday, under the Luminato Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity umbrella, the city grandly attempted to beat a Guinness World Record for most guitarists playing one song together. And for not much more than word-of-mouth promotion, the TdOt didn’t do too badly.

Toronto had wound up filling Yonge-Dundas Square with 1623 guitarists of all ages, but unfortunately Germany remains as the reigning champion for the Guinness title with 1802 guitarists playing “Smoke on the Water” together in 2007.

As a consolation, we did create a national record if not world.

Call it a believer in superstition if you will, but honestly, having a band called The Heartbroken playing a song called Helpless and hoping for a great outcome was a little bit of Canadiana Irony. It’s right up there with Canada’s darling Morissette and her ironically misjudged song “Ironic”.

Not that The Heartbroken did a bad job; I enjoyed their time on stage and am interested in hearing more from them, but…

Where Did We Go Wrong?
Word-of-mouth is great an’ all, but try a couple of commercials or ad boards sometime. I personally hadn’t heard about the event until a couple days beforehand; and although I did my part in promoting, it just wasn’t enough time to prepare.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen random Luminato commercials on TV, but promoting some specific events instead of merely the L’Oreal sponsorship would be a great way to get people interested.

For instance, did you know that Cirque de Soleil will be performing by the waterfront next weekend? Wouldn’t that be an incredible sight to see? Or that top chefs in Toronto are running an outdoor Bar-b-Q lunch at $5 an item during the same time? Well, now you know about it, go!

Baby, One More Time
Hopefully, this wasn’t a one-off. With enough promotion, I believe next year we could pull together the right amount of string to break this record. And I vote for Taking Care of Business, ‘cause that’s what the villagers of the TdOt do.

And if they choose to switch the instrument to bongos, I’m so there!

A Little Less Conversation a Little More Action
Alright, listen up peeps! I want to know what events you’ve seen or are planning to attend this coming week as part of the Luminato festival.

And what’s your favourite bit of Canadiana Irony; we’re a funny group of peeps, so you’ve gotta have something!