The crowd at the 2007 Cedar Valley Settlers Celebration and Music Festival set a world record for largest harmonica play-along. At this year's event, set for this weekend in the Rocky River Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks, an attempt to break the world record for largest kazoo play-along will be made. (West Life file photos by Larry Bennet)

Kazoo record latest attempt to crack Guinness book
By Charles Cassady
Insights
Published Sept. 17, 2008

Ah, the elemental struggle of early Ohio explorers to survive. The bitter freezing winters. The potentially hostile Indian tribes. The need to manufacture their own handcrafts and provisions. The Celtic-derived folk music that kept spirits up in the wilderness. And, of course, the kazoos.

All these ingredients are present this Sunday at the Cedar Valley Settlers Celebration and Music Festival, taking place in the Rocky River Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. All day long, visitors can hearken back to the early 1800s and the settlement of the Western Reserve and Firelands territories. Re-enactors and crafters, dedicated to preserving the sights, sounds and even tastes of daily living back in the days when the American Revolution was living memory, will be in the verdant park from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Hands-on exhibits, concerts, special displays and acres of activities center around the Rocky River Nature Center and the nearby Frostville Museum, off Valley Parkway, in North Olmsted.

The event is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and literally thousands of people are expected for this Metroparks tradition, which first began on a far more humble scale in 1974, according to Chris Larson-McKenzie, of the Rocky River Nature Center. 

“It started out as a walk that went from the Nature Center to Frostville,” she said. “It was a narrated walk about how the pioneers would get ready for winter.”

Initial attendance was 115 strollers. “I know they had a real good turnout for that hike, and over the years it’s grown to be a special event — not just a hike.”

Indeed, those original attendees would scarcely recognize the scale of the Settlers Celebration today.

Lining the route between the Nature Center and the Frostville Museum grounds will be costumed historical re-enactors in a detailed encampment, making candles, rugs and other necessities. Cooking demonstrations will yield samples of biscuits, apple butter and turkey to sample.

The idea was to have a “participatory” festival, said Larson-McKenzie. “We try to concentrate on having people come and do an actual skill like making a yarn doll or pushing a two-hand saw, as opposed to watching someone else do it. We also try to keep it as noncommercial as possible.”

That doesn’t mean there won’t be live entertainment and CDs for sale. After all, this is a music festival as well, with the emphasis on folk and bluegrass melodies.

Locally-based acts performing on two stages include the Rhondas, Turn the Corner and the Fulltertones. Two national headliners are also booked on the festival’s main stage, the Tennessee five-man combo the Farewell Drifters, bringing their originals written for mandolin and guitar at 2:30 p.m., and the quartet the Biscuit Burners, playing dobro, bass, guitar and fiddle, at 4:30 p.m.

But it’s another musical component that puts the Cedar Valley Settlers Festival into the record books, literally. During the day, the Metroparks will try to break the Guinness world record for the largest single kazoo play-along.

Isabelle Parks plays the harmonica at last year's festival.

While not technically an indispensable aspect of hardscrabble pioneer life, setting Guinness records has lately become a tradition. “This will be the third year in a row,” said Dan Crandall, of the Cleveland Metroparks. “Last year we broke the largest harmonica play-along.”

Plunging into the strange, obsessive and competitive field of Guinness-record-setters has been quite an education for the Metroparks, said Crandall. When they initially determined to go for kazoo gold, he said, he didn’t realize “it’s one of the most popular record categories for Guinness.”

At first the official record was 2,675 kazoos at one time. Then it was raised to 3,800. Then the Metroparks got word that in July, a gathering in Utah actually brought together 5,300 kazoos, although this total has yet to be officially recognized in the Guinness archives. To cover all bases, Metroparks officials are hoping to rise above the 5,300 mark.

Kazoos have been provided thanks to sponsoring radio station WKSU, and visitors will have the chance to make their own kazoos on-site as well. Those wanting to actively take part in the world’s largest kazoo play-along are requested to register in advance, via the Web site www.clevelandmetroparks.com. You can also leave feedback about what song should be played during the epochal session.

Because of the monster kazoo jam, parking for the Cedar Valley Settlers Celebration will be heavier than most Nature Center patrons have ever seen — more than 10,000 people are expected, Crandall said. For that reason, the Metroparks are encouraging you to ride bicycles to the Nature Center or Frostville, or at least carpool. Signs will direct festival-goers to alternate lots.

For more information about the Cedar Valley Settlers Celebration and Music Festival, phone the Rocky River Nature Center at (440) 734-6660.