True north: Saskatoon takes title of largest snowball fight
Organizers estimate more than 8,200 people tossed a snowball
Saskatoon showed up to Victoria Park in full force Sunday afternoon to make sure that the city became home to a Guinness World Record.
Organizers estimated that more than 8,200 people came to claim the world's largest snowball fight title.
The current record is held by Seattle, WA, with snowballs thrown by 5,834 people, that means the bridge city beat it by more than 2,300 participants.
The rules said that each participant must throw a snowball and the actual fight had to last one minute. In Saskatoon's record breaking attempt, snow flew through the air for many minutes more.
The feat was conceived by members of Yukigassen Team Canada.
Yukigassen is professional snowball fighting and the team, made up of Saskatchewan players, are heading to Japan in February to compete in the world competition.
Ivor Jones came to see the snowball fight with his grandson, Sam.
"It's a bit of history and to see this number of people is really amazing," he said.
They couldn't actually get a wrist band to get in the enclosure to throw a snowball because the turnout was so large. That didn't stop the fun for Ivor and Sam.
"We've been having our own snowball fight," Ivor said.
The event also was a way to wrap up the nine-day Wintershines festival and was organized with the help of Tourism Saskatoon.
Guinness World Record will still need to go through all of the paperwork and make sure that it is done and submitted properly before the official title is handed over.
