One Of The World's Earliest Flash Mobs Was In Hull
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The idea of a flash mob is common place now. From random events, to their use in advertising and TV shows, millions of people around the world have witnessed or taken part in one. But back in the summer of 2003, no-one had heard of a flash mob. I came across a small news report in a newspaper referring to an event organised by someone calling themselves "Bill" in New York, who was sending e-mails out from [email protected], that's all people knew. The e-mails he sent out began to circulate inviting people to convene in a public place to take part in a random act with the sole purpose of confusing others. The first flash mobs used early, e-mails, Internet forums and basic mobile communications to spread the word, long before the advent of social media came along and made organising such an event easy.
Wasik's first successful flash mob was the 17th of June 2003, when around 130 people converged upon the 9th floor of Macy's department store, under the instruction to enquire after a "love rug" as a group. Most flash mobs lasted only a few minutes, and afterwards participants would simply disappear back into the crowd. As soon as I heard about the New York mob, I was hooked, and got on with organising one in Hull. I and my partner-in-crime created pseudonyms, we referred to ourselves as Pinky and the Brain. She was Pinky, I was the Brain. I built a website, set-up a forum, an e-mail address, and roped in www.thisisull.com the community website, to run articles and "interviews" about the upcoming event. We got the Hull Daily Mail interested, and they ran a story on us. |
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Rather than use the term "mob", I went back to the origins of the idea, and called it a "flash crowd". A term first coined by science fiction writer Larry Niven, in his 1973 novella of the same name. He envisaged that if we ever created an instant mass transportation system, that could take us anywhere in the world in a flash, vast crowds would appear at major world events that were reported in the news. So hence not being one to ever follow the crowd, and use the term mob, the sci-fi geek in me insisted that we called ours a flash crowd.
We spent days, blasting out e-mails, text messages, forming connections often just by approaching likely looking participants in clubs and pubs, asking them if they'd heard of the concept. Those that had, jumped at the idea, and gradually over a couple of weeks the word spread, and the potential crowd grew. |
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We were in a bit of a race against time. The concept was spreading like wild-fire across Internet forums. Cities across the UK had groups trying to organise their own event. Flash mobs were beginning to appear in random places around the world, the UK was lagging behind a bit. There were a few that happened before the Hull one, with varying success. Then finally on a warm summer's day in August we were ready, we had a good couple of hundred people had agreed to take part, we'd decided where we were going to do it (Victoria Square) and we'd decided what we were going to do (The Hokey Cokey). It was simple, easy, and everyone knows the song and actions.
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I actually don't remember the exact date, it was mid-to-late August. It's a long time ago, and a bit of a blur. I'd informed participants to carry an umbrella, so we could identify each other in the crowds wandering through Victoria Square. The signal was that I'd place a red plastic toy box in the middle of the square, in which everyone would place their umbrellas, form a circle around and perform 2 rounds of the song and actions. Walking into Victoria Square seeing sporadic groups of twos and threes brandishing umbrellas amused me no end. The box went down, the crowd formed. It all happened so quickly, no-one thought to count how many people took part. I'd guess around 20-30 people. I'd have hoped for more, but we worked with what we had. The moment we finished, everyone grabbed up their umbrellas, I picked up the box and we all melted back into the Saturday shopping crowds. Job done! And not too shabby for Hull, who are not known for putting themselves out there to do random street performances on a whim, all on the say so of some anonymous guy they'd only had e-mail or text contact with. Anyway, there you go. Another quirky story from our odd little city.
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Join the One Hull Of A City facebook group, and spread the word!
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