PRETORIA, South Africa — Thousands of South Africans gathered at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Thursday for a distinctly local attempt at a world record: getting more people grilling at the same time than anywhere before.
The event took place on Heritage Day, a national holiday celebrating South Africa’s cultural diversity. The outdoor cookout tradition known as a braai cuts across many of the country’s communities and has become so closely associated with the holiday that Heritage Day is sometimes informally called Braai Day.
Organizers prepared about 500 grilling stations and expected roughly 3,000 participants, according to Associated Press reporting. To qualify for the record, participants had to grill simultaneously for at least five minutes while Guinness World Records officials monitored the attempt.
The number to beat was 2,220 people, a record set in Ishigaki City, Japan, in 2023. South Africans attempted the feat last year but fell short after too many participants left their stations.
Grills at the Pretoria stadium were loaded with foods including boerewors — the curled sausage closely associated with South African braai culture — along with burgers, steaks and chops.
The final result was not immediately announced. A Guinness World Records adjudicator said officials were reviewing the evidence and that confirmation could come Friday.
More than a record attempt
The gathering offered a lighter counterpoint to the day’s hard-news agenda while highlighting a tradition shared across South Africa’s many communities. Whether or not the record is confirmed, thousands turned a national holiday into a large-scale celebration of food and cultural identity.
Source: Associated Press reporting from Pretoria, Sept. 24, 2026. Guinness World Records had not yet confirmed the result at publication time.