GREENFIELD – A Guinness World Record was likely made in Greenfield this fall when the longest version of “Free Bird” was played by Indianapolis-area musicians at a local campground.
But perhaps even better than getting their names in the record book was the gratitude from Greenfield Central Junior High students, who were presented with a new guitar, bass and money to update their music library thanks to a donation from the record-makers.
“Free Bird Fest” was Sept. 30 at S&H Campground in Greenfield. The Lynyrd Skynyrd song was played for more than eight hours straight by 84 musicians throughout the course of the day.
Aaron Lunane, an Indianapolis resident who plays music every Saturday at the campground, said it was a crazy idea that turned out out to be a hit.
“We just kind of came up with the idea while we were playing a really long version over Memorial Day weekend, and we started joking about, what’s the longest version going to be? Because historically it’s a really long song and it’s a song people love to yell at bands – ‘Play Free Bird!’”
Lunane and his friend started piecing together a local event throughout the summer, and reached out to other regional musicians.
“We played for eight hours and 13 minutes,” Lunane said. “We just changed guys out throughout the day; we did it sort of in shifts. We had two drum sets and five guitar amps, two keyboards and everyone played somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes and then changed out.”
There was plenty of banter too, as a crowd of 100 or so throughout the day experienced the song in new ways and the musicians enjoyed the silliness of playing the same thing over and over.
“We figured we’d be tired of hearing it because it was the same song over and over, for eight hours,” he said. “But it really didn’t get annoying. It was fresh every time someone changed out because everyone had a slightly different style or take on how it goes.”
The musicians set out a tip bucket and collected donations all day, and sold some merchandise. They chose the GCJHS band program to benefit, providing funds for music education and a guitar and bass instrument.
Dave Poncar, GCJHS band director, said they were grateful for the donation– including an arrangement of “Free Bird” for the band to play.
“This donation will be very helpful to our band program,” Poncar said. “Part of the $1,185 will be used to update our music library, including more current pop and jazz music, and the guitar and bass will be instruments we can use with our school’s Jazz Band.”
Lunane is positive they will make the record book, but it’s an extensive application process. They had 30 pages of requirements to meet, and it can take months to know for sure if the record is official.
He said Guinness doesn’t currently have an official “Free Bird” record; the longest version he was able to locate was only 22 minutes.
“It really was a fun day,” he added. “It was a lot of work leading up to it; I definitely don’t want to do it again but it was really good. A lot of people had a lot of fun.”
