The Rules were simple:
- Start when the Ferry Building Clock Tower struck 6pm
- Only hit with a pillow
- Don’t hit anyone with a camera
What ended up happening was a long planned flash mob of at least 1000 people showing up in Justin Herman Plaza in Downtown San Francisco on Valentine’s Day to participate in a little pillow throw down.
This event was publicized on the web for over 2 weeks prior to February 14th. As a participant in the event (how could I miss photographing this?) I was surprised by a few facts:
- How many photographers/videographers that were present
- How little Police I saw anywhere
At times it seemed like there were as many people taking pictures as there were throwing pillows. You had professional photographers, people with point and shoot digital cameras and people with cell phone cameras. Add to that all the videographers shooting this event, and you have a well documented throw down! So of course this was one of the themes that I wove into my set of photos. There is a nice list of both photos and videos on the web over at Laughing Squid.
But surprisingly, there was little evidence of any of San Francisco’s finest. Luckily, there was no need for them. I didn’t see anything get out of control or even look like it might…after all, it was Valentine’s Day! (Yes, there were a few disgruntled lonely hearts there — but they tended to be the ones hitting the hardest with the pillows…). It just seems a bit dis-concerting that such a well publicized flash mob would have been totally missed by the Police. I at least expected to see a couple of sets of officers hovering around the fringes.
Anyway, a good time seemed to be had by all. When I left at 7:18pm, there were still pillows being thrown.