The event was first proposed by a Duplek kindergarten teacher several years ago. “This is the sixth year that we’ve been doing this. More and more people participate each year. Last year, there were 190 of us,” Lojzka Zore told TV Slovenia.

“We’ve been taking part for several years now, ever since our daughter started attending kindergarten,” said one of the participants. “We attend the Duplek parade every year and it seems that the response is quite good. This is great for the kids; they’re only little once and they should have some fun.”

Still awaiting official confirmation of the record
This year, the organizers tried to get the parade into the Guinness Book of World Records. Breaking the record requires the largest amount of people to wear handmade masks.

To set a record, the mask wearers had to remain in a fenced-off area for five minutes, and no one was allowed to take off any part of their mask. “There needs to be at least 250 of us, but we think we’ll get more than that. The count is carried out by the captain of the local fire department, then we have another count, and finally the footage of the event is analyzed,” added Zore.

The organizers counted 300 firefighters, 271 of whom wore their masks correctly. This was enough to break the record, but the organizers are still awaiting official confirmation from the committee. “It’s stressful, but it’s also a lot of fun when people come together and are in a good mood, wearing masks, and enjoying each other’s company.”

The most recent edition of the Guinness Book of World Records includes 4000 records, 21 of which are Slovenian.

Jasmina Gregorec, TV Slovenia
Translated by J. B.