Unless you’re a one-man catering company, we can’t think of many cases where stacking dozens of wine glasses on your head would come in handy — but sometimes, you’ve just got to do it for the story. Last week, a man from Cyprus broke the Guinness World Record for the most wine glasses balanced on a person’s head.
On Friday, Guinness World Records posted a video of the feat to its official X (formerly Twitter) account, in which security adviser Aristotelis Valaoritis can be seen dancing around with 319 wine glasses stacked on nine trays balanced on his head. Soon enough, gravity takes over, sending all nine trays crashing to the ground in spectacular fashion.
New record: Most wine glasses balanced on the head – 319 by Aristotelis Valaoritis (Cyprus) 🍷
Come for the balancing, stay for the smash at the end 😅 pic.twitter.com/9lStjoSAZy
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) October 19, 2023
Despite the glass casualties, the 62-year-old’s attempt was still valid under Guinness World Record Guidelines: He only needed to balance the glasses for ten seconds, but he did it for a full 20. This meant he’d beaten the previous record of 270 glasses, set last year by another Cyprus resident, Ntinos Kkanti. In total, Valaoritis’ stacked glasses weighed over 30 kilograms.
It’s no surprise both these record-holders are from the same nation: Dancing while balancing wine glasses on one’s head is a Cypriot folk tradition. And Valaoritis, who has been glass dancing professionally since 1995, didn’t hold back on showmanship in his record-breaking performance. Sporting a white vest, he can be seen wiping a bead of sweat from his eyebrow before performing his choreography and dancing over to an assistant, who placed the final, winning tray of glasses on his head.
Valaoritis is now eager to break more glass-stacking world records. He says he plans to take a shot at the titles for “the most glasses balanced on the head in a single stack” and the most “whisky glasses balanced on the head.”
“I want to prove to everyone that I can still do it,” Valaoritis tells Guinness World Records. “I feel happy that at this age, nothing is impossible…so never give up.”