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World's largest papier mache elephant


Holly Budge, Hampshire-based adventurer and conservationist, isn’t exactly a stranger to world records. Who else can say they were the first woman to skydive off Everest and ride 1000km across Mongolia in nine days on semi wild horses? Well, no one. She was quite literally on top of the world when she summited Mount Everest to raise global awareness of the devastating impact of the elephant ivory trade and of her award-winning campaign, How Many Elephants.

This June, Holly is attempting another world record! Taking place at Arlesford Music Festival, she will showcase a 3.96m tall papier mache elephant to simulate the world’s highest African bull elephant. The current world record for the largest papier mache structure is 3.82m. The wire-frame structure will be built by local artist, Kezia Hoffman from Granary Arts, and then festival goers will paint and decorate it to make a striking piece of art with purpose.

Holly is asking local businesses to sponsor the world record attempt. The project will cost a total of £5000, including the elephant build, workshop space, materials, transportation and marquee housing at the festival. In return, the sponsor’s logo will be displayed next to the elephant structure to over 4200 festival goers, plus the added benefits of extensive social media coverage and anticipated press and television coverage. All sponsor logos will also appear on the Alresford Music Festival website.

This Guinness world record attempt will raise further awareness of Holly’s campaign ‘How Many Elephants’, which has recently won a community award from the Mayor of Winchester for hosting over 1000 school children from local schools, plus the general public, at her exhibition in White Space Alresford.

This will be an incredibly meaningful piece of artwork to support Holly's campaign and here at The Adventure Connection, as a travel marketing company, we are proud to be a sponsor of this inspiring challenge.

“Holly is committed to building a fantastic network of engaged young people in our district, inspiring the next generation of conservationists. The children in our school were excited to have Holly come to the school, as it’s not every day a real life adventurer who has summited Everest, raced across Mongolia on horseback and skydived off a mountain comes to visit! Holly’s voluntary workshops have also empowered our children, teachers and parents to live with purpose, to embrace challenges and to realise we are never too small to make a difference.”

Louise Caldwell, Year 2 Teacher at St Swithuns School.

Holly is a remarkable lady with a string of talents. Her passion shines through and her creative talent and commitment to a cause she really cares about has led to her amazing exhibition ‘How Many Elephants’ designed to both educate and stop this horrific cull.”

Fiona Jeffery OBE, Founder and Chair of 'Just a Drop'.

Holly has been invited to speak and showcase her exhibition at a world-class conservation conference this month in Cape Town, leaving the UK on 6th May. She will then travel north to the Kruger National Park to train with the Black Mambas, the first all-female front line, anti-poaching team and document the work of these brave and courageous women on film. You can follow her journey on Instagram, @howmanyelephants. She has helped raise over £300k for a diverse range of charities through her adventures and campaign work so far.

For further information or to get onboard as a sponsor, email gulp@howmanyelephants.com

Follow Holly’s vital work and get involved at www.howmanyelephants.com


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