Two days ago, we ran an exciting festival at Centauri which will now become an annual tradition. In an afternoon of ridiculous games and merriment, we challenged ourselves to attempt various records taken either from the Guinness Book of Records itself, or websites which document record-breaking attempts the world over. In the first heat – which began right after lunch – campers could choose either to be judges, or to compete in a choice of 18 record-breaking attempts. These included artistic challenges (such as the fastest recitation of the soliloquy, “To be or not to be”), physical challenges (such as the fastest lap of the sports pad while flipping a wrap on a plate) and whacky challenges (such as balancing as many spoons as possible on a face, or blowing the biggest bubblegum bubble). The energy at camp was unbelievable as campers ran from challenge to challenge, setting records, then returning to break records set by others. The world record for the number of socks on a foot is 48 – one of our campers managed 31! The world record of the fastest recitation of the soliloquy is 28 seconds – we had a camper complete it in 29.9 seconds!
After that, we moved on to dorm challenges. We had team activities set up all over the quad, and dorms attempted to set and reset records at those activities. Challenges included the number of times an entire dorm could jump together, nonstop, in a giant rope, and the shortest time 
taken to turn a tarp upside down while the whole dorm stood on top of it. We also had giant Jenga towers built, and Lego structures copied while blindfolded. One dorm managed to successfully walk more than 200 steps with all their ankles tied together! During this set of challenges, rain clouds passed overhead, and it poured… but everyone was so involved in the activities, they barely noticed.
Then the day really got exciting. In the theatre, campers cheered wildly as counsellors competed to see how many gummy worms they could pick from a bowl of chocolate sauce using only their teeth. Dinner was themed around record-breaking music, so there was plenty of laughter and dancing – and the meal ended with the greatest challenge of them all – an attempt to sing a song in as many different languages as possible. Campers helped translate the song into 22 different languages, and we sang verses in all of them as the mic was passed from camper to camper: English, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Farsi, Hebrew, Latin, 
Sanskrit, Greek, Italian, Hindi, Danish, American Sign Language, and more. Not only was this an enormous accomplishment, but a terrific celebration of the international nature of Centauri.
All the records we set today will be transcribed in a special book which will live in the dining hall. Next year, we will have dozens of records to break – and we’ll set new ones, too.
The evening ended in a celebration – a concert by The Kents! Campers danced, cheered, finished the night with ice cream, and we all went to bed happy and thoroughly tired!
More photos here www.centauriartscamp.com/media-and-more/
Julie Hartley
Director
Centauri Arts
416 766 7124