DEAL is waiting for official confirmation that it has broken a world record after 23,805 carnival revellers danced to the Village People's seventies song YMCA.

Videos taken from the helicopter will be sent to Guinness World Records to prove Deal smashed the existing record of 13,588, established at a baseball game in the US in 2001.

"We've smashed it!" declared an excited John Tricky, the carnival chairman. "I am very, very proud of the people who came out for it and for the committee who organised it all. We have definitely put Deal back on the map.

"Some of Deal's carnival girls were in tears when they realised they had got the record. They were so excited; it's like all their Christmases rolled into one."

The procession stopped for the YMCA dance just before 8pm, when the KM-fm bus and Deal's carnival princesses reached the mayors on the stage at the pier.

Speaking from inside the bus, KM-fm breakfast presenter Spencer Cork linked up with Toby Mackenzie's nightly show to broadcast the record attempt live across the county.

Floats lined up from the Royal Hotel to the end of the Strand, all blasting out the ‘70s tune out of their radios, which were tuned in to KM-fm.

The crowds lining the streets joined in the famous Village People dance for the entire song and the local dignitaries and 10 visiting mayors stood on stage to do the actions.

Two official adjudicators were appointed to oversee the count; Commander Lesley Spinks looked down from a helicopter and the town sergeant Tony Higgins watched from the seafront. A further 20 "spotters" were in the crowd to check up on the dancers.

Royal Marine cadets were given the responsibility of handing out stickers to the people who were going to join in the dance, but ran out after distributing all 25,000.

"There were hundreds of people without stickers--we just didn't have enough," Mr Trickey said.

He said it was very difficult to judge the exact size of the crowd, and estimated thousands of poeple were not included in the final count.

"We've done everything they asked us to do and we are just waiting for the official ratification. Deal, Walmer and Kingsdown Carnival Regatta is going into the record books. We won't let anyone take that away from us."

He did however admit that now they had set the standard another group would probably take on the challenge to beat them.

"I am not going to challenge it again," he said. "It is a logistical nightmare. We will think of something else for next year.”