The entire world was united on a football field in Miami, Florida,
earlier this month, in the shape of a larger-than-life image made entirely out of flags from every country, island and
landmark on the planet.
Latin
singer and actor, Jencarlos Canela and his father and manager Heriberto had both always dreamed of becoming Guinness World
Records record holders and so set about at an attempt for the title of largest flag logo/image.
Teaming up with the
Kiwanis of Little Havana Foundation charity, the attempt took place on March 11, coinciding with Miami’s 35th
Annual Calle Ocho Carnavale Celebration – an event celebarting all things ‘Latin’.
The Caenla’s decided to create a
number ‘1’ using flags from every country in the world to represent the unity of all people as ‘one world.’
The
rules for the attempt were straightforward -a minimum of 400 flags had to be used and connected with no spaces in between
them to create one solid image.
In order to verify the record, Guinness World Record adjudicator Johanna Hessling had
to count all of the flags to verify how many had been used, while an aerial photo had to be taken of the entire image to
ensure it did indeed form a number 1.
It took over 100 volunteers to carefully roll out the image in order for the
count to take place. Once this was done, a Miami firefighter climbed a fire truck’s ladder to take the photo required for
the record to be approved.
Jencarlos Canela
Measuring
a total length of 250 ft (76.20 m) by 36 ft (10.98 m), a total of 422 flags were confirmed to have been used and a new
Guinness World Records record was declared.
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Jencarlos arrived at the
Carnavale to receive the certificate at a special presentation later in the day before the flag image was paraded for over
one million attendees of the festival to see.