Visit Keweenaw and the City of Houghton led Friday’s gathering, which broke the world record for the number of people wearing plaid in one place. The final tally was 1,740 people.

That breaks the previous record of 1,359 participants, set in 2019 in Kenora, Ontario.

“I am thrilled,” said Jesse Wiederhold, public relations and events coordinator for Visit Keweenaw. “This is insane.”

Visit Keweenaw developed the idea a little over a month ago while brainstorming for fall events, Wiederhold said.

Candace Wolf/Daily Mining Gazette Plaid-wearers assembly on the Houghton High School field Friday afternoon in rainy conditions with clouds looming.

906 Day was too soon for a big undertaking. But then they remembered Plaidurday — a celebration of plaid started in Michigan 12 years ago that has since spread nationwide

“So we got some time to think of something and we thought, ‘What if we try and get the most people in this picture?'” Wiederhold said.

In addition to getting the word out themselves, they reached out for help. As often happens in the Copper Country, they got it, Wiederhold said.

Houghton High School lent the use of its field, and let students out of class to participate in the shoot. The City of Houghton helped facilitate the event. And photographer Adam Johnson of Brockit climbed the top of the press box to take the official shot.

That will be sent to Guinness World Records as documentation of the event. Organizers also kept track of each person with plaid who entered the event with a clicker to verify numbers.

Raven Bromley/Daily Mining Gazette A drone flying over the Houghton High School field was used to capture the plaid-wearing crowd Friday afternoon.

“It’s actually really cost prohibitive to apply to get in,” Wiederhold said. “So we waited to see how it went. So now we’ll go back and apply and see what we can do to get that proper certification.”

Crowd members were excited to have pitched in.

“It’s a community event, and I’m happy to support the community,” said Linda Adams of Houghton.

Sue and Frank Lisko drove up from Clarkston, Michigan. Their son goes to Michigan Technological University.

They chose this weekend for a vacation after reading about the Plaidurday event on social media.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette A crowd measured at 1,740 people celebrates on the Houghton High School field after being informed they’ve unofficially broken the world record for most people wearing plaid in one place Friday. Visit Keweenaw will submit the count and other documentation to the Guinness Book of World Records.

When asked why they wanted to participate, Sue said “Why not?”

“How often do you get to break a world record?” Frank said.

They both enjoyed being part of the record-setting crowd.

“I think it was worth the cold,” Frank said.