It was a brave attempt, which came up just short. But it ended up being the biggest yoga event the East Kootenay has ever seen.
Yoga practictioners from all over the East Kootenay, including Cranbrook and Kimberley, and from as far away as Calgary, lined up Sunday, August 25, on 2nd Avenue in downtown Fernie, to try to break the Guinness World Record for the longest ever yoga chain.
Organizer Cheryl Sherry said 600 people turned out, many of them at the last minute, but about 700 were needed. The current record is 693.
"It was an amazing event — everyone had a great time," Sherry said. "We've never had that many people on 2nd Avenue before."
This was Fernie's first ever yoga festival, held in conjunction with that city's Downtown Summer Socials Series.
The chain was led by a teacher who demonstrated the first pose and then, like a domino effect, each person followed one after the other until everybody was doing that pose.
Two more poses were done the same way, with sivasana (lying on their mat in relaxation) being the fourth and final pose.
Despite not having broken the world record, Sherry said she was impressed by the turnout.
"We had people from all over," she said. "It was just amazing. I'm surprised so many people responded to posters in yoga studios in Calgary, in Kimberley and Cranbrook.
"I'm looking at this as something we can really build on for next year. We'd like to do another big event. We put this together in two and a half months — it was a last minute thing, really. So we have a year to plan for the next one.