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Collins Park Goes Retro for Evian's Live Young, Skate On!

Big 'fros, shiny booty shorts, and knee-high tube socks were all the rage at Evian's roller skating event last Saturday.A "live healthy, get fit" kind of initiative, Live Young, Skate On! brought the '70s and '80s roller disco back to life. DJ Jubilee rocked everything from Kool & The Gang...
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Big 'fros, shiny booty shorts, and knee-high tube socks were all the rage at Evian's roller skating event last Saturday.

A "live healthy, get fit" kind of initiative, Live Young, Skate On! brought the '70s and '80s roller disco back to life. DJ Jubilee rocked everything from Kool & The Gang to Michael Jackson and MDNA while skaters relived their youths -- or tried with all their might to stay upright.

Celebrity host Gabrielle Union said, after putting on her skates, "I'm excited not to make a jackass out of myself! I haven't skated since 1981."

And then she joined Evian's attempt to form the world's largest conga line on roller skates. Brand manager Aurelie Patterson had hoped for a line 250 people strong, but RecordSetter officials determined there were 197 in the conga line. Still, there was no previous record, so they stand at number one.

Click below the jump to see some wild wigs, smooth moves, and an unstable Gabrielle Union.


Evian was the sole sponsor of this totally free event, where they provided guests with free skates, tees, pink backpacks, and cooky wigs to take photos in.

The Coolhaus dessert truck gave out free ice cream sammies all afternoon. It was so hot that your ice cream melted at first bite, but the treats are so delicious there was a long line at all times.

"It had to be retro," said Aurelie Patterson about the choice of theme for the event, "Roller skating is a fun way to stay active and our 2009 roller skating babies campaign got the most online views."

DJ Jubilee's sets brought to mind beach scenes from The Birdcage, and Roll Crew's show was like a modern-day version of Ben Stiller's Starsky & Hutch disco scene, without the coke and competitiveness.

Attendees were everything from young kids to roller derby teams and cufflink-wearing gangstas.

Gabrielle Union hosted this event because she's all for the consumption of water, she said. "Evian and I have some similar philosophies -- making a commitment to health and wellness," she explained.

"I was a little nervous," she said about joining the conga line. "I didn't want to jack up the line. My memories of skating are standing on the side looking at boys, waiting for someone to ask me to couple skate."

The record couldn't be set if there were breaks in the line, so it took two tries for the 197 people to circle around their pop-up rink three times.

Union and Patterson received the RecordSetter award for world's longest roller skate conga line, and every participant got a complimentary RecordSetter patch.

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