Sawt Falasteen - French town breaks smurf number world record

Landerneau, population 16,000, on the far western tip of France's Britanny region, had tried twice before to wrest the record from Lauchringen, a town in Germany that managed to gather together a seemingly unassailable 2,762 smurfs in 2019.

But on Saturday, the French challengers finally pulverised that record, assembling 3,076 people clad and face-painted in blue, wearing white hats and singing smurfy songs.

"We smurfed the record," said one participant.

Smurfs, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo in 1958 and called "Schtroumpfs" in French, are small, human-like creatures living in the forest.

The fun characters have turned into a major franchise that includes films, series, advertising, video games, theme parks and toys.

"A friend encouraged me to join and I thought: 'Why not?'," said Simone Pronost, 82, sipping a beer on the terrace of a cafe, dressed as a smurfette.

Albane Delariviere, a 20-year-old student, travelled all the way from Rennes -- more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) away -- to join.

"We thought it was a cool idea to help Landerneau out," she said.

Landerneau mayor Patrick Leclerc, also in full smurf dress, said the effort "brings people together and gives them something else to think about than the times we're living in".

Pascal Soun, head of the association organising the event, said the gathering "allows people to have fun and enter an imaginary world for a few hours".

Contestants were relieved that weather conditions were favourable, after the previous record attempt, in 2023, was sunk by heavy rain that kept many contestants away.

In 2020, an initially successful bid -- with more than 3,500 smurfs -- was invalidated by Guinness World Records on a technicality because of a missing document.

Landerneau's smurf enthusiasts were almost ready to give up but film production company Paramount persuaded them to have another go.

Paramount, which is set to release "Smurfs, The Movie" in July, convinced them with an offer to handle the event's PR and provide 1,200 free tickets for a preview of the film.

C.AbuSway--SF-PST