Although they won one of the “most alike” twin contests Sunday, their faces almost as indiscernible as their matching Buzz Lightyear costumes, Jaydyn and Jaudyn would argue that they’re different — Jaudyn was dressed like the good Buzz, while Jaydyn was the anti-hero from Toy Story 2.
“The real Buzz doesn’t have ‘Andy’ written on the shoe,” Jaydyn explained as the two held their Popsicles and lifted their shoes up to show the differences.
The 6-year-old identical twins came all the way from Clinton, N.C., to celebrate the 41st annual Twins Days, a festival held Friday to Sunday in Twinsburg to commemorate twins and other multiples of birth.
The stellar pair fared well with sets of Princess Leias, aliens and other spaced-out characters in honor of this year’s theme, “Twinfinity and Beyond,” coined from Buzz Lightyear’s famous phrase.
When asked their favorite part about being twins, Jaydyn responded, “fighting.”
Their mom, Dana Draughon, laughed.
“They fight, and two seconds later, they’re the best of friends again,” Draughon said.
The two stood on stage with medals around their necks to pose for pictures after winning their contest, but when the emcee shouted, “Andy’s coming!” they broke their pose and crashed to the ground simultaneously, staying true to the Toy Story character who froze up whenever his human owner came around.
Pictures are part of the Twins Days culture, so much so that Jim Szymanski, the president of the festival, said the committee decided to get two cellphone-charging stations this year to keep up with the demand.
Another large attraction this year was the Cavs’ 2016 NBA Championship trophy that was on display, which often had a long line of people waiting to take a photo next to it.
More than 1,800 sets of twins registered to participate in the weekend’s activities, which included rides, musical entertainment, over 100 twin contests with awarded medals, a twin talent show and, of course, scheduled times for twin photo ops.
Although he was hoping for about 2,000 registered sets like last year, Szymanski estimates there were nearly 3,000 sets of twins at this weekend’s event. Szymanski said some don’t register to get in for free and decide to pay instead.
Twins come from all over the globe for the famed weekend, one that is still considered the largest annual gathering of twins in the world.
Carina and Christina Pani won the contest for the twins from furthest outside the U.S., traveling here all the way from Vienna, Austria. The two saw a documentary on the festival and decided to come to the United States for the first time to experience it.
“It’s been really great,” Carina said. “It’s a nice country.”
Phillip and Stuart Daniel came from even farther — Sydney, Australia — but decided not to compete since they’ve already won that contest.
“We’ve got a lot of twin friends here,” Phillip said.
Although the Pani and Daniel twins don’t believe in special twin telepathy, they do think the time they spend with one another lends to special communication.
“We’re thinking the same thing a lot of the time,” Stuart Daniel said. “With twins, there’s definitely something.”
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom.