Records are made to be broken.
That was the sentiment of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy (BOPC) as it set out to reclaim the glory that it originally heralded back in 2018, when it set the record for the longest line of garden flamingos in the world. When that 2018 record was surpassed in 2020 by South Carolina, BOPC knew that it had to fight hard to reestablish the title.
As determination would have it, that coveted title was brought back to Buffalo yesterday, as BOPC placed 4,280 “FLOmingos” (named after Frederick Law Olmsted himself) in an impressive “conga” line at Front Park. It didn’t take long before the record attempt was announced as a solid victory, which surpassed the previous record by 527 garden flamingos.
The record-setting effort was part of the year-long national “Olmsted 200: Parks for All People” campaign - a celebration of Olmsted’s 200th birthday.
Once again, Buffalo has laid claim to the Guinness World Record for the longest line of garden flamingos – a record that is not only impressive on its own, it also represents an outstanding community effort to support the Olmsted Parks System.
After the record-setting event wrapped up, those who adopted a FLOmingo were invited to come pick them up and take them home. So if you start seeing solitary members of this sensational flamboyance of pink flamingos perching in gardens throughout the region, now you know why.