Five years after setting the first Guinness World Record for the most people simultaneously walking on stilts, Cirque du Soleil will reclaim the title in honor of its 25th anniversary. Cirque du Soleil will be holding stilt walking events in Orlando, Las Vegas, Nev., New York, N.Y., Montréal (Canada), Fortaleza (Brazil), Lisbon (Portugal), Macau (China), Nagoya (Japan), and Tokyo (Japan) on Tuesday, June 16, 2009. The company is organizing public events, including in the streets of Québec, where it all started back in the days of the Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul (the Baie-Saint-Paul Stiltwalkers), a street theatre group founded by La Nouba Director of Creation, Gilles Ste-Croix. In the spring of 1980, Ste-Croix walked 56 miles on tall stilts from Baie-Saint-Paul to Québec City to raise money for a group of street performers that would soon influence the founding of Cirque du Soleil.
To honor this momentous occasion and the roots of Cirque du Soleil, the cast and crew of La Nouba, along with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, invite the people of Orlando and visitors to witness the stilt walk. The event takes place from 4 to 4:30 p.m. outside the La Nouba theatre at Downtown Disney. The mayor will be on hand to proclaim June 16 ‘Cirque du Soleil Day’ in Orlando.Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced June 16 Cirque du Soleil Day in Orlando. To celebrate, Cirque du Soleil joined with its numerous locations around the world to set a new Guinness World Record for most people walking on Stilts at the same time. Other records included in the video include most front wheel hops on a bicycle and most pinky squeaks in 1 minute on a bicycle.