Much ado, indeed, Helen.
I don't think I will do it again. They are trying to make the gathering (not the record attempt) an annual event but it is just not economical. There is the cost of travel, hotel, meals, the cost of the event and the effort of getting the gongs there which gets harder the older one gets.
It was an experience and I suppose I am glad to have done it. I have seen the doyens of the gonging world - I chose not to speak with them.
They call themselves 'gong masters' but I consider myself a player. Also I try to remember what the word 'gong' means in fifteenth century English. (A gong farmer was the guy that cleared out the privies and cesspits and spread the contents over the fields)