SKOWHEGAN — It’s a moose calling world record!

The town of Skowhegan and Main Street Skowhegan received confirmation Wednesday from Guinness World Records that they had set the new world record for the most people moose calling simultaneously.

The record was established on June 9, 2018, at the Skowhegan Moose Festival at the state fairgrounds when 1,054 people joined in the world record attempt led by Roger Lambert, a registered Maine guide.

For more than 30 seconds, the hundreds of men, women and children who packed the grandstand belted out a collective nasal groan, seeking to break the Guinness World Record for moose calling.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaa, was the call.

The record attempt was seen by many people on local and regional news outlets and generated more than 16,000 views of the video of the attempt on the Skowhegan Moose Festival Facebook page.

Organizers and sponsors of the Skowhegan Moose Festival gather round the certificate from Guinness World Records marking the record-setting moose call. In back from left are Mark LeBlanc, Carroll Ware and Soren Siren, Skowhegan Moose Festival Committee members; Sam Hight, dealer principal, Hight Family of Dealerships (lead sponsor); Roger Lambert, World Record Moose Call facilitator; Shawn Howard, Skowhegan Moose Festival Committee member; and Patrick Dore, Branch Manager, Franklin Savings Bank (moose calling contest sponsor). In front from left are Christine Almand, Skowhegan town manager; Lila Ware, Skowhegan Moose Festival Committee member; Kristina Cannon, Main Street Skowhegan executive director; Mary Haley, Main Street Skowhegan project coordinator; Matt DuBois, Main Street Skowhegan board of directors president; Maria Landry, Main Street Skowhegan associate director; and Amanda White, Skowhegan Moose Festival Committee member.

“The Skowhegan Moose Festival was a huge success and this world record is the icing on the cake,” Main Street Executive Director Kristina Cannon said Wednesday in a news release. “To us, it is about so much more than just the people who were counted. So many people and organizations and businesses were involved in festival planning and execution.

“From our sponsors to our volunteers, this event and record wouldn’t have happened without them. This recognition is a great way to celebrate Skowhegan and all that it has to offer. As a community, we are thrilled to hold this world record.”

The event hosted by Main Street Skowhegan attracted an estimated 6,000 people from across 13 states to the weekendlong festival in June.

The review process at Guinness World Records took eight months to verify the exact number of people who were calling simultaneously in the grandstand of the Skowhegan Fairgrounds.

Organizers said the 6,000 people who attended the festival set a new attendance record for the event, which also was held elsewhere in Maine — in Caribou, Kittery and Bethel, and at Cabela’s in Scarborough.

Lambert asked the fairgrounds audience to listen to him do a moose call and then do one themselves. He said callers could pinch their noses if they wanted to. The audience blared out their best cow call, and it was a record.

Robert Lambert welcomes the crowd on June 9, 2018, to the moose call demonstration at the Skowhegan Moose Fest at the Skowhegan Fairgrounds. A Guinness World Record was set by the 1,054 people who simultaneously made a moose call.

The audience had to have a minimum of 995 people to set the record.

The 2018 Skowhegan Moose Festival was a three-day event with a range of activities for all ages, including adult and child moose-calling competitions, hunting and fly-fishing demonstrations and seminars with sporting experts, plus vendors, outdoor retailers, food trucks, and a Phil Vassar concert.

It featured a sit-down maple breakfast in Constitution Hall, followed by horse-drawn wagon rides, live music by the Old Liberty String Band, outdoor activities for children and archery and BB-gun ranges.

The three-day festival also was the setting for the annual Maine Moose Permit Lottery conducted by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, which administers a drawing to select winners of Maine moose hunting permits. To hunt moose in Maine, hunters must have one of the special permits, which are limited in order to promote a healthy moose population in the state, organizers said.

In 2017, 2,080 hunters came away with permits. In 2018, 2,500 names were drawn in the random-chance lottery from a pool of over 54,000 applicants.

The 2018 Moose Festival was supported by leading sponsors Cabela’s, Hight Family of Dealerships and other partners including the Maine Office of Tourism and the Kennebec Valley Tourism Council, as well as many local businesses.

A community celebration is scheduled for noon to 3 p.m. Friday at Main Street Skowhegan’s office at 48 Court St. in Skowhegan. Participants will be able to take a photo with the official certificate from Guinness World Records. Main Street Skowhegan also will provide a printed copy to people who come to the celebration.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow