ALCALA – Move over, Dagupan City.

Alcala will likely be the next world’s record-holder for the longest barbecue…and the longest grill.

And not even an hour long rain last Saturday prevented the Alcalanians from going for the records.

A jubilant Mayor Manuel Collado believed that they were able to register not only the world’s longest barbecue, measuring three kilometers long but also the world’s longest grill at 150 meters.

Some 40,000 people participated in the barbecue event as a special activity for the town fiesta in honor of the Holy Cross.

The town secured bid numbers for the two events from Guinness, which is a guarantee that if it really broke the world records based on documentations, the same would be entered into the record book.

“I am confident that we have beaten the two existing world records” said Mayor Collado.

Ed Tolentino, chairman of the steering committee and president of the Rang-ay ti  Alcala Foundation, initially only gave it 90 per cent chance of bagging the two world records, and 98 per cent when it was already over.

The three-kilometer continuous grill spanned across seven villages, namely San Pedro Ili, San Nicolas, Poblacion East, Poblacion West, San Juan, San Vicente and Laoac.

Gov. Victor Agbayani and Fifth District Board Member Dionisio Villar, assisted by Mayor Collado, in lighting the grills from the middle, and spread towards east and west.

The rain delayed the activity for an hour but when it stopped, the people gamely went back to the street to finish their tasks.

Barbecued simultaneously in less than 10 minutes were 4,000 kilos of pork supplied by Monterey, pierced together in 92,000 bamboo sticks.

There were 1,000 grills in all, each grill measured three meters and was allotted 92 sticks of pork, or four kilos of pork per grill.

Tolentino said after all these were documented, the people grilled anything they had, from milkfish to pork chop, beef to vegetables organizing their own street parties that lasted till the wee hours.

Some 20,000 pieces of milkfish bought in from Bonuan in Dagupan distributed to the people to be grilled for free.

The three-kilometer barbecue exceeded the 1,007.56 meter established by the city of Dagupan in Pangasinan, during its Bangus Festival on May 3, 2003.

Asked if the town will repeat a similar activity during their fiesta next year, Collado said this is already remote considering the huge expenses poured into this project which was funded solely by overseas Alcala residents who wanted a different kind of activity for their townmates.

The activity was attended by balikbayans, from the United States, particularly Hawaii, Northern and Southern California, Canada, Europe and Hongkong who attended Alcala’s Global Homecoming.

The balikbayans actually bankrolled the activity, paying US$ 100 or P5,100 per grill of three meters.

The net proceeds of the activity will be turned over to the Rang-ay ti Alcala Foundation to be used for health, educational and community development projects.

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