Hundreds of worms were lured out of the ground by mollusc fans at the annual Falmouth Worm Charming Championships.
Records were smashed on Sunday when charmers used tried and tested techniques, old wives' tales and experimental form to encourage the wigglers out of the Cornish soil.
In total competitors managed to charm a staggering 260 worms out with musical instruments, garden tools, interpretive dance and utter madness, Cornwall Live reported.
The total number of worms coaxed up to the surface was well up from last year's championships which was held during a heatwave, and only saw a single worm appear.
Following the inaugural event in Penryn back in 2021, the worm-charming contest organised by artist Georgia Gendall moved to The Dracaena Centre in Falmouth last year.
It was back there again in 2023 featuring worm portraits, worm tattoos, worm charming merchandise and a brass band.
For the competition itself, teams were each given a two-metre square plot of grass and half an hour to get as many worms up as possible, without digging or using any mechanical tools.
Worm charming, worm grunting and worm fiddling are all terms to describe the act of enticing earthworms to the surface of the soil, generally to be harnessed in agriculture or used as bait.
As a skill and profession in 2023, worm charming is now very rare, although the art has been kept alive by earthworm enthusiasts who have passed it through generations to ensure that it survives.
Worms come to the surface naturally in response to rain tapping on the ground, feeling the vibrations through the soil and knowing travel across the ground surface will be easier in the damp.
Birds imitate this by pecking on the floor, or quickly stamping their feet.
At this year's competition, methods of enticing the worms out of the ground included playing various instruments, banging garden forks, dancing vigorously and asking the worms very politely to come up to the surface.
The winning team managed to charm a total of 20 worms within the 30 minutes, setting a new record for the Falmouth Worm Charming Championships, which this year had Arts Council and Feast funding.
They received a tall silver wormlike sculpture made by the French artist Nicolas Deshayes, while the longest worm (22cm) gets a bronze worm sculpture made by Naomi Frears.
A special prize - a shoe with a vibrator and a toothbrush, made by Flo Brooks - is given for the most inventive charming technique, which this year went to a group of women dressed as Titanic passengers who wrote poetry and wolf-whistled to the worms.
However, the overall winners have a long way to go to beat the current world record, which was established on June 29, 2009, by 10-year-old Sophie Smith of Willaston, England.
She managed to raise a staggering 567 worms during Britain's World Worm Charming Championship.
