WHAT’S THE LONGEST you’ve ever lasted? Partying that is.
Whatever your personal best is, it’s highly doubtful that it will beat one Dublin DJ who’s aiming to become a Guinness World Record holder by DJ’ing for 200 straight hours.
The appropriately named DJ Norberto Loco has already started training for the eight-day-long set in the Underground Club in Dublin’s Citi Hotel from 19 November.
It’s not just a test of endurance though, DJ Loco is using his record attempt as a way of raising money for Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
Polish-born Norberto has been living here for the past few years and, having DJ’ed in nightclubs across the city, fancied challenging himself.
“I’d been DJ’ing for a number of years and decided that I wanted to do something funny and a little bit crazy,” he explains.
I went to the Guinness World Records website and found who’s holding the current record. I then contacted them telling them I was thinking of attempting to break it. They sent me back a load of questions about why I’m thinking of doing it. If they felt you weren’t going to be safe they mightn’t let you attempt it.
Guinness World Records also outlined the rules of the challenge.
“I’m entitled to five minutes break every hour. But I can save them up so it means I can have about two hours break total every 24 hours,” explains Norberto.
Another one of the other rules is that he can’t repeat a song within four hours of playing it last. So, theoretically, he could just pick four hours of music and put in on a loop for eight days?
“That’s not the spirit of it,” laughs Norberto. “The whole idea is that I’m going to do every day in a different style to attract different people and I suppose to stop myself getting bored. One day I’m going to play Latin music and then maybe some chart stuff and then some house music.”
Although he’s DJ’ed all over the place, he’s never attempted anything like this before.
“When I was in Spain, I would be DJ’ing for two days, but that was of course with breaks.”
“I have some personal trainers in the gym and I’ll be looked over by paramedics. I think by August I’ll be looking to get up to about three days.”
Has he sought advice from other DJs who’ve tried similar stamina sapping sets?
I did check around but nobody really wants to talk about it. Everybody has their own tactics, they all have some kind of preparation. I looked at a DJ who made a similar attempt and he was preparing for three months, I’ll have seven months so I should be okay.
Every aspect of the attempt is to be recorded and all the evidence will be sent to Guinness World Records to be verified. A representative from London will also visit at some point.
They won’t be the only ones though, the Underground Club will be open for 24 hours a day during the week in question, even though alcohol will only be served during the usual times.
Asked if he’s expecting a load of late-night/early morning sessioners to drop in for some dancing, DJ Loco say he imagines people will be more interested in seeing how he’s holding up.
“I think people will be going to see how I look after a few days DJ’ing. I suppose on the last day there’ll be a bit more of a celebratory atmosphere because I’ll already have broken the record.”
That’s another thing, Norberto isn’t just looking to break the record, he’s looking to smash it. The current record for the “Longest Marathon Club Djing” is 168 hours and is held by DJ Smokin Joe Mekhael who set the mark in Sydney in 2012.
“There’s no point in just doing another couple of hours, it’ll just get broken again soon,” says Norberto.
Given the effort, let’s hope it stands for a few years anyway.
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