Macon, Ga., is home to the kazoo inventor and wants to bring together the largest kazoo gathering in the world.
There are many ways to enter the Guinness World Records—and people have tried just about everything.
Now, the city of Macon, Ga., will attempt to facilitate the Largest Kazoo Ensemble, bringing the record home to the U.S. city where it all began almost 200 years ago.
It started with freed slave Alabama Vest who created the musical instrument that’s so easy to use in Macon in the 1840s. Inspired by the African horn-mirliton or onion flute, Vest brought his original prototype of a simple wooden tube with a piece of paper attached to it to Macon clockmaker Thaddeus Von Clegg. Together they produced a design that they officially debuted at the Georgia State Fair in Macon in 1852, calling it a “Down South Submarine.”
To both commemorate the invention and to break the world record of kazoo performers in one place held by 5190 people in London, on Friday, March 28, 2025, thousands will gather to play the kazoo in Macon’s Atrium Health Amphitheater, which holds 10,000 people. Participants will play along to a track of songs all connected to Macon, a city where Little Richard, James Brown, The Allman Brothers and Otis Redding all got their starts. Rick Hubbard, head of the Kazoobie Band, will lead the concert. If all goes well, the Macon May 28 ensemble will break the official Guinness World Record of the Largest Kazoo Ensemble.
No kazoo, no worries. Visit Macon will provide kazoos to everyone.
But wait, there’s more. The Tubman African American Museum in Macon has opened a temporary exhibit—created in partnership with the Kazoo Museum & Factory of Beaufort, S.C.—celebrating more than 150 years of kazoo history featuring rare and historic kazoos from around the world and colorful, interactive, made-for-selfie photo opps. The exhibit will remain open through April 1, which is also the end of Macon’s signature International Cherry Blossom Festival.
The idea for this year's March 28 kazoo gathering in Macon began with tourism officials looking for a way to break a Guinness record. When they learned of the kazoo’s Macon origins, the event seemed a natural. Now all they need are the kazoo players.
“We’re trying to promote this far and wide,” said Taryn Scher of Taryn Scher Public Relations, who represents Macon.
Anyone can join in the band, she added. “There’s no entry point to skill level.”
DATE: Friday, March 28, 2025
WHERE: Atrium Health Amphitheater, 3657 Eisenhower Pkwy, Macon, Ga.
TIMES: Gates open at 4 p.m. and the record attempt begins at 6 p.m. with a performance to follow.
TICKETS: $5—free to children ages 6 and under—to both track the gathering's numbers and to raise funds for the Otis Redding Foundation & Otis Redding Center for the Arts, a center “to empower, enrich, and motivate all young people through programs involving music, writing and instrumentation.” Tickets may be purchased at visitmacon.org/kazoo or in-person at the Atrium Health Amphitheatre Box Office.
MORE INFORMATION: https://visitmacon.org/kazoo/
Weird, Wacky & Wild South is written by travel writer Cheré Dastugue Coen who is glad the kazoo was invented since she lacks musical prowess.
