DUTCH DOMINO TEAM SETS RECORD FOR 2019’S LARGEST DOMINO EVENT

On August 24, the Dutch Domino Team was back for another year, fresh off a successful crowdfunding campaign, ready for their annual event known simply as DDT. This year’s team was comprised of 13 professional domino builders, mostly from the Netherlands, but with one member from Israel, the team’s first international builder. The plan for 2019 was to go bigger and better than ever before; DDT 2019 was to consist of 350,000 dominoes, a record for the team, and the largest domino event of 2019.

In addition to this massive quantity of dominoes, the Dutch Domino Team was also trying an entirely revolutionary approach to a domino event: telling a story rather than simply having a theme. Team leader Pim Vriens said, “When we first started brainstorming ideas for this year during our event last year, we were thinking of maybe doing a theme like ‘Showbizz.’ Having some projects depicting musicals, some others depicting the fashion world, etc. Then it occurred to us that we could actually try to tell a story within that theme, of someone trying to make it in the industry. It opened so many doors, but required a completely different way of thinking.” The final story involved the “road to fame” of Emma Smith, a fictional singer. The domino projects took the viewer through her journey of discovery, fame, downfall, and recovery -  and ended with a “happily ever after” finale.

On the day of the falldown, things went just about as perfectly as a domino builder can hope for. A few minor mishaps did not stop the audience of 230 from loving the show, or the team from breaking their personal record with a total of 343,024 dominoes. Reflecting on the overall success of DDT 2019, Pim says, “it's amazing to see the interaction with the domino community during an event like this. Not only was there a lot of online interaction via our social media, but over 10 builders from Germany, Ireland and Belgium came to Veenendaal, Netherlands to watch the event. That's insane!” The H5 Domino Community was a proud sponsor this event, and we want to give a huge congratulations to the Dutch Domino Team on their successful falldown! It will be very exciting to see what they do next year!