The record-beating ‘Rock the Boat’ challenge

Ireland has just maintained and bolstered the world record for the biggest Rock the Boat dance, and they did it for charity.

A dance to ‘Rock the Boat’, the 1974 disco hit by The Hues Corporation, is often performed at weddings and birthday parties. It involves lines of people sitting down in a row and ‘rowing’ a boat to the tune of the popular song. Particularly popular in Ireland, the dance attracted a lot more international attention after being featured on the second season of the TV series Derry Girls.

The largest rock the boat, until recently, and in the Guinness Book of Records, consisted of 1,701 participants and was achieved by Stephen Murtagh, Brendan Kieran and the Carrick Carnival 400 Committee (Ireland) in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, Ireland, on June 2, 2013. The event raised funds for the Irish Cancer Society. That was the biggest, until May of this year, 2024 when the Irish did it again with a record 1,888 people in Derry.

‘Rock the Boat’ record well and truly smashed

Not to be outdone, and to really concrete Ireland as the World champions at ‘Rock the Boat’, a crowd of 3,700 participants, sat in lines and ‘Rocked the Boat at the opening of this year’s Electric Picnic Festival, smashing the record in Stradbally, County Laois. It wasn’t just for fun, though. Proceeds were also raised in support of SOSAD Ireland – which offers services for people who are struggling with suicidal ideation, self harming, depression, bereavement, stress and anxiety.

So, Euro Weekly News readers, the gauntlet is well and truly thrown down. Who out there can beat 3,700 in the ‘Rock the Boat’ challenge while raising money for a good cause?