In 2012, as part of the 80th year celebrations, a Pageant Trail was held along North Terrace over four days in October. It required the assistance of over 150 volunteers. A Guinness World Record attempt did not therefore take place at last year's Credit Union Christmas Pageant. However a new tradition was set with the singing of the National Anthem just before the start of the pageant. The public was invited to stand and sing along with the anthem, as it was broadcast live at the head of the pageant through the street speaker system. Pageant Director, Brian Gilbertson, sang live accompanied by the Band of the South Australia Police.

Thank you to all the volunteers who came out in force in 2011 to help us secure another Guinness World Record, this time for the “most people wearing red noses.”

From the Chief Marshal, to the timekeepers, to the Group Marshals and the Counters, to our Guinness representative and the people of South Australia who used the exercise to celebrate their clown within - it made for a lot of fun!

Here’s what Chris Sheedy, the Guinness World Records representative said on the day when asked to compare the Credit Union Christmas Pageant with other events he has adjudicated.
 
“This pageant is not like anything I have seen in the world. To see all the public behind the blue honour line and participate as they do is special. I love coming here to witness your attempts and as long as you have a record to break and I am with Guinness, I’ll be coming back. I love it.”

At 9.10am, everyone who had noses were hopefully wearing them and our counters were counting! The record was broken, with a tally of 16,092 by the time we announced it and there were still more tallies to count. We had to wear the noses for 10 minutes and quite a few could not go the distance. These were removed from the count. Some enterprising children had more than one nose and put them on their caps. They could not be counted. Nonetheless, the record has been achieved. It was a job well done with fun and the atmosphere was fantastic in pageant perfect weather.

Plans for a new Guinness World Record attempt are currently being carefully considered!