Over 600 singers and musicians gathered at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to break the Guinness World Record for the largest Mariachi serenade ever during the half-time of the match between Mexico and Panama on Sunday evening, the Los Angles Times reports.
The event's promoter, Alonso Estrada, said that the city of Pasadena had achieved their long time dream of holding the unique record of the world's largest mariachi performance.
The mariachis played the Mexican song "Cielito Lindo," which is a staple of Mexican popular music and is usually chanted by soccer fans when their team wins an important game. The musicians at Rose Bowl culminated their 5 minute performance with another classic, "El Son De La Negra."
"We managed to gather biggest group of musicians playing mexican vernacular music ever and it's even more imposing that we achieved it in a packed football field," Estrada said.
Pasadena spokesman William Boyer confirmed to the LA Times that Guinness World Records officials were at the stadium to make sure that the new record was certified.
Among the Mariachis that helped to establish this new milestone was young Sebastian De La Cruz, who sang the U.S. national anthem at the NBA final between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat. De La Cruz donned a full mariachi costume during his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, a gesture that stirred quite a controversy.
Sunday night proved to be a bitter sweet event for the Mexican fans gathered at the Rose Bowl because, although they were able to witness a world record, the Mexican national team added another lose to their lackluster record during 2013.
The previous world record was set in 2010 by a total of 555 mariachis who performed in the city of Tucson.
Mexico City officials have had plans for years to reclaim the title back to the country where mariachis came from. The Zocalo, Mexico City's large city square has been the stage of numerous world records and a number of years ago officials had announced that plans to hold the largest mariachi gathering in history were underway, but nothing has materialized since.