WAUCONDA, Ill., May 1 (UPI) -- An Illinois village has learned that it has officially displaced Graubunden, Switzerland, as the host of the world's largest snowball fight.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that 3,027 people were involved in the event on Jan. 29 in Wauconda, a northern suburb of Chicago. Guinness World Records notified Bill Lutz, the fight's organizer, this week that his supporting evidence had been accepted.
Mayor-elect Sal Saccomanno said that Lutz was told the town will get a mention in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
Graubunden won the world record in January 2003 with a snowball fight involving 2,473 participants.
Saccomanno told the Sun-Times that he wore a leather jacket, helmet and chaps for protection because he knew he would be a target.
"Nobody got hurt beside me," Saccomanno said. "The kids just wouldn't stop throwing the snowballs at me before the fight even started."
