Madison Brat Fest Record

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

In the final hour of Brat Fest, brat lovers rallied to set a record of 191,712 brats sold over the four-day festival at Willow Island at the Alliant Energy Center.

At 5 p.m., organizer Tim Metcalfe wasn't sure they would be able to sell about 10,000 brats in one hour to beat the record set in 2004, 189,432 brats. But with a "huge dinner rush" and encouragement from the bands, Madison broke its own world record.

"The stage bands got up and said, 'If everybody buys one brat right now, we can break this record,' " Metcalfe said. "I think everybody just had one more."

How was it possible to sell 10,000 brats in the final hour of Brat Fest?

"Huge dinner rush"?

That's a gargantuan dinner rush!

That final hour rally was quite an effort to break the record.

Some interesting facts:

The 2008 goal is to sell more than 200,000 brats during the Johnsonville World’s Largest Brat Festival – shattering the current record of 189,432 brats.

Johnsonville’s Big Taste Grill has helped various charities raise a total of $2.5 million since it was introduced in 1995.

The Johnsonville World’s Largest Brat Fest has raised more than $650,000 for charity, benefiting more than 70 organizations.

If stacked end-to-end, 200,000 brats would span about 19 miles.

If a new world record is set, about 88 brats will be eaten each minute during the 4-day event!

2008 marks the 26th year of the event. Since its inception, more than 2 million brats have been sold.

The event will feature Johnsonville’s Big Taste Grill. The Big Taste Grill weighs 53,000 pounds and is 6 feet in diameter, 20 feet tall and 65 feet long – with the ability to alone satisfy about 2,500 brat-lovers each hour.

I wonder if the final hour sales set a world record.

Selling 10,000 brats in 60 minutes is amazing.

The prices for the event were set to encourage plenty of buying.

$1.50 per brat is a good deal. At Miller Park, for instance, brats go for $4.25.

Although the price was right and it was all for a good cause, I still can't get over the 10,000 brats sold in the final hour of Brat Fest.

That's about 166 brats sold per minute.

That's a lot of brats.

Mmmm...brats.

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Additional Brat Fest Stats.