We did it! The Guinness Book of World Records has officially accepted our record-setting attempt from last year’s festival! Accordions – and accordion players -- of all ages and sizes came out of their closets and into the bright sunlight of Bannerman Park. The official record states that 989 accordion players spent five minutes playing “Mussels in the Corner” in unison (more or less…). Unofficial estimates suggest that the number of accordions present in the park that day was well over a thousand. Bursts of unauthorized accordion music were heard on all sides -- the Accordion Revolution Security Enforcers (A.R.S.E.s) were kept busy trying to whip the troops into battle order.

Performance director Dave Penny commented “It's amazing how well it worked out in the end, with all those different key accordions. We started to fall apart about the third time around, but picked up again. A lot of people complained that we stopped too soon! “ (Wishful thinking, Dave…) When the tune came to an end, players raised their instruments over their heads and gave a mighty roar. It looked as if they were ready to stream out of the park and overthrow the government.

But what has happened to the Revolution? Has the moment of inspiration been lost in the hegemony of the guitar? Dave is optimistic that “at least one or two hundred people were ‘born again” " but we have no evidence that the effects of the Revolution are still being felt.

Send us your stories. Has your life, or the life of a loved one, been changed forever by the Accordion Revolution? Are you now the possessor of accordions in every conceivable key? Is your child still traumatized by the sound of Mussels in the Corner? Write to us at The Broadside.

- Marnie Parsons