The fourth annual Gilda's LaughFest opened tonight with an apparently successful effort for wearing sunglasses in the dark. Here's the unofficial tally.
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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Amy Ashton missed her chance last year with Gilda's LaughFest to set a Guinness World Record.
This year she was part of the festival's successful attempt to set a new record for the greatest number of people wearing sunglasses in the dark.
A total of 1,675 people assembled this evening to set a new record, surpassing the current mark of 1,642, to kickoff LaughFest 2014 and 10 days of seriously funny stuff in Grand Rapids.
"I always wanted to be part of a world record," said Ashton, who was downtown with her husband, Matt, and 2-year-old daughter, Lynnlee.
One year ago, Ashton, of Grand Rapids, came downtown to be a part of the 2013 successful attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the greatest number of people wearing false mustaches at once. The Ashtons arrived after all the false mustaches had been distributed.
"We tried to be a little earlier this year, and they've got more sunglasses this time," she said.
Festival organizers had 2,500 pairs of yellow sunglasses, donated by Baudville, Inc, but, at first, there were not enough people to wear sunglasses for five minutes.
The initial count fell about 100 short, causing volunteers and staffers to scramble to gather late arrivals and passersby to give it a second try.
"Won't it be nice to set a record that doesn't involve cold or snow," Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell said to the assembled crowd gathered on the corner of Monroe Avenue, just across Louis Street from Rosa Parks Circle.
Meanwhile, organizers encouraged the audience to dance and sing along with Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night."
"You know, Corey Hart," said LaughFest president Wendy Wigger, "is a Canadian."
The current Guinness World Record for the greatest number of sunglasses worn at once in the dark was set at Wrigley Field in Chicago in July 2012 with 1,642 people wearing sunglasses in the dark.
"Anybody can set a record in summer," Wigger said, egging the crowd on. "Can you go five more minutes?"
LaughFest's attempt is unofficial until certified by Guinness World Records. Tonight's initial count was 1,693, but reduced to 1,675 once disqualifications by official spotters were accounted for.
If official, the festival will have gone 4 for 4 with successful efforts to set new world records.
Last year, 1,532 people gathered to set a record for the most people wearing false mustaches at once.
Related: Gilda's LaughFest loses Guinness World Record for most mustaches in a not-so-close shave
Setting silly records has become a tradition since the inaugural festival was launched in 2011 with 925 people tossing rubber chickens at once.
The following year, 607 people wore chicken beaks and danced "The Chicken Dance" to set the record for the largest number of people wearing animal noses at once.
Both of those records still stand.
LaughFest 2013's world record for mustache wearing, however, was shattered in July when Cirque de Fairfield in Fairfield, Iowa, gathered 2,268 people wearing false mustaches at once at the final stop on The Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, sponsored by the Des Moines Register.
Gilda's LaughFest gets underway for 10 days of stand-up comedians, sketch comedy, people and pet tricks, community showcases and open-mike nights, all inspired by the late Gilda Radner, an original cast member of NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live," who died in 1989 from complications from ovarian cancer.
The Detroit-born comedian's brother, Michael Radner, returned to Grand Rapids to help open the fourth annual community-based festival of laughter.
"I'm freezing," Radner told the cheering audience. "And I'm having a good time."
Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk covers arts and entertainment for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jkaczmarczyk@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.