Mandolin World Record Is Officially Broken

Stephen Oliver; p/c Sarah Marko

Stephen Oliver, mandolinist for the psych-folk band Brother Oliver, broke the Guinness World Record for the ‘longest marathon playing mandolin’ on December 18th. It was a 27 hour affair (27 hours, 8 minutes and 33 seconds of playing time to be exact) and the record was broken in front of a large gathering of supporters in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

Since then, the record has been officially verified by the Guinness World Records, which marks the first change of hands for this specific record since 2017 (the previous record was 26 hours and 41 minutes, held by Kuntal Raj Chakrabortty).

The successful record break is the gemstone on top of what became a wildly exhilarating project—featuring a plethora of ups and downs and comical plot twists—which will be the subject of a feature-length documentary coming later this year.

Stephen recently spoke with the Greenville Journal about his record-breaking attempt, which you can read below:

Swanson’s Warehouse; Greenville, South Carolina