Registration opens for world’s largest trivia contest in Stevens Point

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) - For 54 consecutive hours, up to 12,000 people will come to Stevens Point to take part in the largest trivia contest on the planet. This year’s contest, called “Trivia 53: The Trivia Life for Me,” is set to begin this Friday.

Registration opens four days before the contest, but that doesn’t stop participants from waiting to punch their ticket to the big show.

“It’s a great weekend to hang out with my friends and family, it is my favorite part of the year,” says Patty Johnson, Plover. “It’s a good time to be crazy, we work all year and see how it turns out.”

In order to create such a contest, it all starts with students at 90 FM.

“We’re given our instructions in the first meeting back from winter break,” said UWSP Sophomore Mack McGrego r. “So January, we’re sat down, we get a whole billeted list of things we need to get done before the contest and with deadlines and we run and go.”

Helping with the contest takes plenty of hard work, but the experience is irreplaceable. “It is so beyond valuable to me because a lot of the things that I learn in the station are not things that I am directly learning in the classroom,” added McGregor.

Win or lose, the ultimate goal of trivia weekend is to leave with an amazing time. “It’s just like a great vacation from life,” said Madison Wiza of Stevens Point. “It’s a fun weekend to see your family, see your friends, hang out, not sleep at all, and answer some really wild questions.”

Everyone does it all while creating memories that are sure to last forever.

“I’ve seen people meet through this contest, get married through this contest, have kids, bring the kids to the contest, have the kids come to school here,” said David A. Coulthurst, Co-Chairman of Trivia Contest. “It’s always been a family affair lifelong for so many people.”

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