An orchestra that plays only vegetable instruments has officially earned a Guinness World Record. Watch the video below.
The Vegetable Orchestra, a Vienna-based group founded in 1998, has performed an astounding 344 concerts, all using instruments handcrafted from fresh produce. Think carrot recorders, cucumberphones, radish bass flutes, percussive eggplants, and even leek violins.
In case you were wondering, yes, their instruments occasionally break mid-performance—or dry out, because that’s the reality of playing vegetables on stage. But this creative bunch is undeterred, constantly inventing new veggie-based instruments to keep their shows fresh (literally).
“We believe that we can produce sound that cannot be [easily] produced by other instruments. You can hear the difference. It sometimes sounds like animals, sometimes just like abstract sounds,” the orchestra shares on its website.
After the concerts, it gets even better: leftover vegetable bits used to craft the instruments are turned into soup, which is served to the audience. Sustainable, delicious, and entertaining—what more could you ask for?
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The musicians come from diverse backgrounds in electronic, rock, punk, and classical music. Their mission? To show the world that music can be made from just about anything. “You can make music out of nearly everything, each thing contains a very specific acoustic quality and represents an intricate universe of sound,” they explain.
While their creativity is clearly boundless, they have one request for curious fans: stop asking whether they’re vegan or vegetarian. As they cheekily note on their website: “No we are not. Don’t ask again. We’ve heard this question 3 million times.”
Watch the video below
So next time you see a cucumberphone or leek violin, just enjoy the music—and maybe the soup too.
