Domino Day

Builders' Challenge

Starting in 2004, each Domino Day has featured Builders' Challenges, with three challenges in 2004 and 2005, and four challenges starting in 2006. Builders are usually chosen in pairs for each Builder's Challenge. The chosen builders then have to complete vital parts of the setup while the dominoes are already toppling elsewhere, in order to allow another field of dominoes to topple. This usually takes the form of trying to bridge the gap(s) in an unfinished setup before the toppling dominoes reach it.

For the 2005 event, the dominoes which fell during the third builders challenge were not counted for the record as it was determined that the one of the builders restarted the flow of the dominoes after they had stopped due to two being placed too far apart. In the 2006 event the second and third builders challenge were successful in that the challenge was completed, but due to incorrect timing the gates did not lift, thus stopping the flow before it reached the fields.

Slow Stones

Starting in 2006, a series of "Slow Stones" are placed just before the final Builders Challenge. Slow Stones are relatively large, transparent domino stones filled with colored powder, with each Slow Stone containing a different-colored powder. Upon reaching the first Slow Stone, its powder begins to drain (similar to an hourglass) until it becomes light enough to tip over, hitting the next Slow Stone to start its powder draining. The process takes approximately one minute per Slow Stone. The Slow Stones are used as an opportunity to cut to advertising, show highlights from earlier in the show, do interviews, etc. The builders of the last Builders Challenge are also selected during the Slow Stones, and the challenge itself starts after the last Slow Stone has fallen.

Domino Day 2005

During the preparations of Domino Day 2005 on 14 November, with only four days to go until event, a sparrow flew into the building and landed on several domino bricks, eventually causing 23,000 of them (out of 4 million) to fall. The sparrow was eventually shot, by hired exterminator. Outraged by shooting, animal rights group took court actions against the exterminator and the Domino Day production company Endemol. Public prosecutors in The Hague opened an investigation and eventually issued a €200 fine to the exterminator.

Domino Day 2006

A new world record was set on 17 November on Domino Day. 4,079,381 stones were toppled out of the 4,400,000 that were set up. The first three builders' challenges failed so the success of the last challenge was crucial to setting the world record.

The design of the course took about a year and a team of 90 builders took around two months to build it.

The theme, Music in Motion, represents 9 different kinds of music: Rock n' Roll, Classical Music, Pop Star, Schlager, Roaring 20's, Flower Power, World Music, Hip Hop, and Disco Fever.

The Builder's Challenges represent the history of the music players, which are: Record Player, Tape Player, CD Player, and MP3 player.

Each Builder's Challenge has a field with a number of dominoes with the number 4 At the beginning. The record player challenge field contains 400 dominoes, the tape player challenge has a field of 4,000 dominoes, the CD player challenge contains 40,000 dominoes, and the MP3 player challenge contains 400,000 dominoes.

Domino Day 2007

The theme of this year was 'Falling into Life'. A total of 4,500,000 stones were placed by 85 builders from 12 countries. Only 81.6% of the dominoes fell, resulting in a final count of 3,671,465.

Domino Day 2007 was held on 16 November and appeared to fail mostly because of the unsuccessful final challenge to create a bridge of dominoes on a revolving hammer/clock structure to link up with over 400,000 stones. However, it was later revealed that even if this area had fallen, the 2006 record would not have been broken. It was the first time that Domino Day failed to set a new record.

Domino Day 2008

On 14 November 2008 the team of Weijers Domino Productions tried to break the world record domino toppling. They did set up 4.5 million dominoes in the WTC Expo Center in Leeuwarden to try topping the previous record of 2 years ago, which was at 4,079,381 dominoes toppled.

'Celebrating 10 years of Domino Day - Breaking more World Records than ever' is the central theme of Domino Day 2008. Domino Day celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Although the second Builder Challenge failed, the record was broken with 4,345,027 dominoes toppled. Also, 10 additional world records were attempted and successfully broken. These additional world records were:

1. Longest domino spiral (200 m)
2. Highest domino climb (12 m)
3. Smallest domino stone (7 mm)
4. Largest domino stone (4.8 m)
5. Longest domino wall (16 m)
6. Largest domino structure (25,000 stones)
7. Fastest topple of 30 metres of domino stones (4.21 sec) (the sprinter Churandy Martina ran with the dominoes and achieved the time of 3.81 sec for the same distance)
8. Largest number of domino stones resting on a single domino (727 stones)
9. Largest rectangular level domino field (1 million stones)
10. Most fallen dominoes (4,345,027 stones)

Domino Day 2009

The 2009 event is entitled 'The World in Domino - The Show with the Flow'. It was the 11th edition of the show; it showed different aspects of the world with the display moving from continent to continent. The design uses 4.8 million dominoes. 4,345,028 dominoes were needed to be toppled in order to break the standing world record. Even though part of the final section of the piece did not fall, and three builder's challenges failed, the number of dominoes toppled was 4,491,863.

The flows for 2009 are: The American Dream, Latin Extravaganza, The African Life, Colors of Europe, Balancing Yin and Yang, Rough Ice, and Sun, Sand, and Sealife.

The 1st, and 2nd Builder's Challenges contain 25,000 dominoes representing earth, and air, the 3rd Builder's Challenge Contain 50,000 dominoes representing water, and the 4th Builder's Challenge has 500,000 dominoes representing all of Earth's continents.

Since 2010

The show is officially paused due to financial and organizational problems. Domino Day was the biggest TV production of the Netherlands.

International broadcast

(* Reruns)