State College set a new world record for the largest ice lantern display on Saturday.
The announcement was made at around 6:45 p.m., a 45-minute delay from schedule. When one of the organizers, John Stitzinger, announced the final count, excitement lit up State College.
“The number is 5,622,” Stitzinger declared.
The goal for Light Up State College was to have 3,000 ice luminaries on display at once. The final count was nearly twice as many, smashing the previous record.
The organizers had to postpone the announcement when they realized many participants brought twice as many luminaries as they signed up for.
Eric Furjanic is one of the organizers.
“We only had 3,600 tea lights because that’s as many as we thought we might get," Furjanic said. "We actually had to send people rallying throughout town to find any tea lights they could to round out the numbers to make sure everybody’s project got to contribute to breaking the world record.”
He said Light Up State College is putting together a certificate to send out to all the contributors, so they’re recognized as part of this world record.
