Close to two thousand guitar players gathered in Southern Wroclaw and broke a world record for playing one song in unison.

Bogdan Zaryn reports

Over 1900 Polish guitarists gathered at the Wroclaw market square in southern Poland to play Hey Joe, a Jimi Hendrix classic in unison during the 6th annual 'Thanks Jimi Festival.'

Event organizer guitarist and music teacher Leszek Cichowski says the festival ‘was just an idea ten years ago during a small music workshop in the town of  Zakiew in southwestern Poland where 16 guitar players performed together: ‘Last year we had in the market square in Wroclaw 1881 guitar players. So we beat our world record . We had 1951 guitar players and again it’s the best in the world.’

Leszek says that putting together such a musical extravaganza is a real exercise in logistics: ‘All guitar players should be in one place and they should play one song together which is not shorter than five minutes. We performed Hey Joe  as a record song.’

This year the ‘Thanks Jimi Festival’ crossed the globe using the web: ‘People joined us in many places in the world. We had a music bridge with Australia. In a blues club in Albany, they played with us on line. Also in Detroit. Also in Sweden and in Holland in Rotterdam. For me the amount of people playing together is not so important as the idea to connect with the whole world. The idea for this year was also to make the 1st of May World Guitar Day, a new password for the future as well.’ 

Organizers are hoping that the festival will reach new heights and musicians who enjoy playing Hey Joe a Jimi Hendrix international favorite which has become a Guinness world record breaker. As for Leszek Cichowski he has been playing that song since the age of nine and from the looks of it will keep on playing it for years to come.