Dublin, Ohio, attempted to make history Saturday night when attendees at the 20th annual Dublin Irish Festival tried to break the Guinness World Record for world’s largest Irish jig.

After festival organizers frantically passed out numbered stickers to festival attendees, dancers of all ages jigged for five minutes at 9 p.m. The traditional Irish sounds of the band Prodigals engaged the crowd which was instructed how to jig by trained Irish dancers on stage.

Although the Dublin Irish Festival initially broke the record in 1998 with 6,971 dancers, the title was taken away in 2005 by Cork, Ireland, with 7,664 dancers. Although the number of dancers who attempted to break the record this year is not yet available, the people in the crowd thoroughly enjoyed their own participation.

“It was cool how they involved everyone, but it definitely took endurance,” said Ben Norris, a sophomore in international business. “I really admired the Irish dancers after that.”

Prodigals’ lead vocalist Gregory Grene agreed that the sight of thousands of people jigging in the audience was extraordinary.

“At first I thought the idea of a large jig was pretty gimmicky, but looking at it from up here, it was mighty,” Grene said to the audience following the jig.

Although the attempt for the world’s largest Irish jig might make this year’s festival one for the record books, some festival patrons seemed perfectly content embracing only the cultural aspects of the festival. Tents featuring traditional music, art and food were spread out over 27 acres of land.

Women and men wearing green or displaying their traditional Irish kilts listened to spoken-word poetry and savored the rich, Irish cuisine of stew and soda bread. Others simply enjoyed the continuous rounds of Guinness and Irish whiskey flowing across every plastic cup in sight.

As the night wore on and the sun went down on another year’s festival, the crowd grew increasingly energized, especially as hoards of people flocked to the Killian’s Celtic Rock Stage to see Flogging Molly’s performance at 10 p.m.

Even festival organizers couldn’t quell the liveliness permeating through the crowd when they instructed the audience that moshing would not be permitted and violators would be removed.

Flogging Molly performed an hour-and-a-half set of its infectious, punk, Irish music while the crowd jumped and shouted along. The occasional sandal or opened water bottle with full contents flying through the air above the crowd did little to dampen the spirits of the enamored audience.

“Flogging Molly puts on an amazing show,” said Dan Rennecker, a senior in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. “From the music to the lights and their comments between songs, it was just a heck of a show.”

Jerrod Wagner, a recent Capital University alumnus, said Flogging Molly headlining the event attracted people who traditionally wouldn’t attend the festival.

“It is great that they can attract so many people to something cultural that isn’t as mainstream and doesn’t attract as many people,” Wagner said.

Perhaps the luck of the Irish contributed again to the success of the Dublin Irish Festival this year, though the musical performances, displays of cultural pride and attempts at world-record-breaking surely helped.

Kate Christobek can be reached at [email protected].