People have been known to do some creative things to get into the Guinness Book of World Records, but on June 28 the small Iowa town of Manson will attempt to more than triple its population to place its name in that book.

Mansonites, together with people “hopefully from all fifty states,” will attempt to perform the world’s largest country line dance this Saturday, said Carolyn Heuser, secretary of the line dance committee.

The current record is a line dance of 5,202 people, set last April in Australia. Manson natives and their friends are shooting for 6,000.

The attempt is a celebration of Manson’s Quasquicentennial. The celebration kicks off Thursday with the opening ceremony and ends Saturday with a street dance in the center of the town of 1,890 people.

“The record was set in Australia, and we think that it needs to be brought back to the U.S.,” Heuser said. “And we want Iowa to be the one to have it.”

Manson is looking to “involve a lot of people,” Heuser said. They are expecting groups of line dancers from many of the surrounding states and “anybody who wants to come up.”

“All shapes, sizes, colors are welcome. We say that if you can walk, you can line dance,” Heuser said. They have had people ages eight to 86 show up at the weekly practices and lessons.

T-shirts with the message “I participated in the World’s Largest Country Line Dance” will be sold at the event for $8.50. The proceeds from the T-shirts will go to benefit the Manson general Quasqui fund.

They will dance rain or shine, but if they happen to not obtain the record, “we will have had an awful lot of fun,” Heuser said.

The official song of the dance will be “A Rose on the Prairie,” a song written and recorded by Manson native Scott Dorman. He will be performing the song live at the event.

To join the fun, you need only show up. Participation is free and open to the public. Registration begins at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday at the Manson fire station —the dance will take place at 1:00 p.m.