Domino Day

Domino Day is a world record attempt for the highest number of toppling domino stones, organized each year by Endemol Netherlands. Together with Robin Paul Weijers, also known as Mr. Domino, parties team up to set a new world record.

The following are the subsequent records:

Date	Year	Theme	Location	Result	Fallen	Total
27 December	1986	KLM Domino World Record	Lisse, Netherlands	Success	755,836	1,250,000
2 January	1988	Europe in Domino	Rosmalen, Netherlands	Success	1,328,101	1,500,000
28 August	1998	Domino D-Day: Visionland	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	Success	1,605,757	2,300,000
5 November	1999	Domino Day: Europa ohne Grenzen	Zuidlaren, Netherlands	Success	2,472,480	2,500,000
31 December	1999	Team from China & Japan *	Beijing, China	Success	2,751,518	3,000,000
3 November	2000	Domino Day: Reaction	Zuidlaren, Netherlands	Success	2,977,678	3,112,000
31 December	2000	Team from China & Japan & South Korea *	Beijing, China	Success	3,407,535	3,500,000
16 November	2001	Domino Day: Bridging the World	Maastricht, Netherlands	Success	3,540,562	3,750,000
14 November	2002	Domino Day: Expressions for Millions	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	Success	3,847,295	4,000,000
12 November	2004	Domino Day: The Challenge	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	Success	3,992,397	4,250,000
18 November	2005	Domino Day: Domino Theatre of Eternal Stories	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	Success	4,002,136	4,321,000
17 November	2006	Domino Day: Music in Motion	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	Success	4,079,381	4,400,000
16 November	2007	Domino Day: Falling into Life	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	Failure	3,671,465	4,500,000
14 November	2008	Domino Day: Celebrating 10 years of Domino Day	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	Success	4,345,027	4,500,000

* Not an official Domino Day.

Recurring elements

Builders' Challenge

Starting in 2004, each Domino Day has featured Builders' Challenges, with three challenges in 2004 and 2005, and four challenges starting in 2006. Builders are usually chosen in pairs for each Builder's Challenge. The chosen builders then have to complete vital parts of the setup while the dominoes are already toppling else, in order to allow another field of dominoes to topple. This usually takes the form of trying to bridge the gap(s) in an unfinished setup before the toppling dominoes reach it.

Builders Challenge results
Year	1	2	3	4
2004	Success	Failure	Failure	n/a
2005	Success	Failure	Failure	n/a
2006	Failure	Failure	Failure	Success
2007	Failure	Success	Success	Failure
2008	Success	Failure	Success	Success

Slow Stones

Starting in 2006, a series of "Slow Stones" are placed just before the final Builders Challenge. Slow Stones are relatively large, transparent domino stones filled with colored powder, with each Slow Stone containing a different-colored powder. Upon reaching the first Slow Stone, its powder begins to drain (similar to an hourglass) until it becomes light enough to tip over, hitting the next Slow Stone to start its powder draining. The process takes approximately one minute per Slow Stone. The Slow Stones are used as an opportunity to cut to advertising, show highlights from earlier in the show, do interviews, etc. The builders of the last Builders Challenge are also selected during the Slow Stones, and the challenge itself starts after the last Slow Stone has fallen.

Past Domino Day editions

Domino Day 2005

Main article: Domino Day 2005 sparrow

During the preparations of Domino Day 2005 on 14 November, with only four days to go until event, the sparrow flew into the building and landed on several domino bricks, eventually causing 23,000 of them (out of 4 million) to fall. The bird was eventually shot, by hired exterminator. Outraged by shooting, animal rights group took court actions against the exterminator and the Domino day production company Endemol. Public prosecutors in The Hague opened an investigation and eventually issued a 200 Euro fine to the exterminator

Domino Day 2006

A new world record was set on 17 November on Domino Day. 4,079,381 stones were toppled out of the 4,400,000 that were set up. The first three builders' challenges failed so the success of the last challenge was crucial to setting the world record.

The design of the course took about a year and a team of 90 builders took around two months to build it.

Domino Day 2007

The theme of this year was 'Falling into Life'. A total of 4,500,000 stones were placed by 85 builders from 12 countries. Only 81.6% of the dominoes fell, resulting in a final count of 3,671,465.

Domino Day 2007 was held on 16 November and appeared to fail mostly because of the unsuccessful final challenge to create a bridge of dominoes on a revolving hammer/clock structure to link up with over 400,000 stones. However, it was later revealed that even if this area had fallen, the 2006 record would not have been broken. It was the first time in 9 years that Domino Day failed to set a new record.

Domino Day 2008

On 15 November 2008 the team of Weijers Domino Productions tried to break the world record domino toppling. They did set up 4.5 million dominoes in the WTC Expo Center in Leeuwarden to try topping the previous record of 2 years ago, which was at 4,079,381 dominoes toppled.

'Celebrating 10 years of Domino Day - Breaking more World Records than ever' is the central theme of Domino Day 2008. Domino Day celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Although one Builder Challenge failed, the record was broken with 4,345,027 dominoes toppled. Also, 9 additional world records were attempted and successfully broken. These additional world records were:

1. Longest domino spiral (200 m)
2. Highest domino climb (12 m)
3. Smallest domino stone (7 mm)
4. Largest domino stone (4.8 m)
5. Longest domino wall (16 m)
6. Largest domino structure (25,000 stones)
7. Fastest topple of 30 metres of domino stones (4.21 sec) (the sprinter Churandy Martina ran with the dominoes and achieved the time of 3.81 sec for the same distance)
8. Largest number of domino stones resting on a single domino (727 stones)
9. Largest rectangular level domino field (1 million stones)

External links

• Endemol
• Fansite (Dutch)
• Weijers Domino Productions;
• Domino Toppling World Records
• Reuters article plus two minute video of Domino Day 2006 (URL last accessed 30 December 2006)
• Domino Day 2006 at Google Video: Part 1 Part 2