“Crawl” to a Guinness World Record This Weekend!
Cinco de Mayo falls on a Monday this year – total buzzkill, am I right? Good people of Center City, have I ever got serendipitous news. Want to have some special-occasion-level fun this weekend? Want to do something awesome on Saturday that ends early enough to ensure you’re fit to stagger through the Broad Street Run at 8:30 the next morning? WANT TO SET A WORLD RECORD? You totally do.
Grab a bunch of your best buds (or Buds!) and do your part this weekend to help Philly snag a Guinness World Record at The Crawl. Photo: Creative Commons
May 3rd at high noon, join a few thousand of your closest pals for The Crawl, an event billing itself as “the world’s largest bar crawl.” The Crawl’s organizers are pretty hellbent on justifying that claim, too – they are vying for the Guinness World Record for the largest confirmed bar crawl of all time. The goal to beat: 4,885 participants, a record set by Crawl for Cancer of Kansas City, MO in June of last year. The revelers at that crawl quaffed 4,635 gallons of beer, which is… okay, slightly alarming. Still. I know Philly, and I know we can squash anything coming out of Missouri. The Crawl’s organizers agree: they are projecting attendance of 15,000 (!) bar crawlin’ Center Citizens getting in on the record push.
The crawl runs from 12 noon until 8pm Saturday evening, with over 100 Center City establishments participating. Those signing up to join pay for a wristband that tracks their participation: Guinness’ specifications require each crawler to consume at least 5oz of fluid at each of at least 10 different pubs/bars. For the sake of everyone’s stomach lining, water, soda, and other non-alcoholic drinks count. There will be hydration stations set up along the streets for crawlers to balance out their booze with some much-needed H2O. In the grand, established tradition of the best bar crawls everywhere, participants are encouraged to adorn themselves in costumes and appropriately-festive accessories. In St. Louis, crawl couture ranged from tutus and “team” t-shirts to full-on mascot costumes (with, I’m guessing, custom mouth/trunk/snout apertures). Maps of participating establishments will be furnished to attendees.
Tickets run $10 for general admission, or $25 for a VIP wristband affording you perks like a Crawl t-shirt and admission to the event after party… just in case you aren’t yet well-toasted. Tickets won’t be available at the gate, so buy ‘em now.
Look at it this way: if you were already planning to tie one on this Saturday, now you can feel like you’re supporting your community as well.
One last note: at the end of the night, if you’ve really gone above and beyond in the execution of your civic duty, make one last awesome decision and let someone else drive. The good people of SEPTA are, after all, always happy to be your designated driver.
