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Be the event you want to see
Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2010
By Esther Hoffman, junior
As a student reporter, I get to see a lot of events and write about them from an outsider’s perspective. But once in awhile, I like to actually participate.
On April 1, I helped make the news instead of writing about it. I participated in a flash mob before the Taylor Swift concert at the Intrust Bank Arena.
“A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse,” according to Wikipedia.
Flash mobs have been popularized by Improv Everywhere, a performance art group formed in 2001 to cause scenes of “chaos and joy” in public. Videos of these scenes have millions of views on Improv Everywhere’s YouTube channel.
I love Improv Everywhere’s videos, and I have always wanted to participate in one of its events. Unfortunately, the group is based in New York City, and I’m in flyover country.
But a few months ago, I discovered I might have a chance to taste a little of the Improv Everywhere excitement.
The idea spawned at a TED discussion one Monday night at Mead’s Corner coffee shop on Douglas and Emporia. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, a non-profit organization that hosts yearly conferences in various places around the world. TED speakers talk about science and culture, often with the aim of improving society.
TED nights at Mead’s Corner consist of watching videos from the conferences and discussing the ideas expressed in them.
Alan Ebright, the TED discussion leader at Mead’s Corner, found out that Taylor Swift would be performing on April 1 at the Intrust Bank Arena. Ebright wanted to bring together a group of people to perform a flash mob before the concert. He announced this idea at the TED discussions, and it was warmly received.
Ebright and Sam Connolly, the manager of Mead’s Corner, organized the flash mob. They created a facebook group, invited about 1,600 people, and notified police about the flash mob.
The plan was for the flash mobsters to meet in the Mead’s Corner parking lot at 5:45 p.m., walk over to the arena, and freeze in place from 6:12 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. when the crowd heading into the concert would still be thick.
I knew this would be great. We would surprise so many people!
So I didn’t want to miss the April Fool’s Day flash mob for anything. I marked my calendar with eagerness. And then the day came.
As soon as I clocked out of work on April 1, I geared up for some fun. I arrived at Mead’s Corner 10 minutes early and soaked in the anticipation that we all felt in the air. I could hear distant cheers from the arena. The doors must have just opened.
At 5:45, Ebright used a megaphone to speak to the crowd in the Mead’s Corner parking lot. He reminded us of the basics and sent us on our way.
It was as if the atmosphere was reacting to our pumped up adrenaline. As we walked the two blocks south to the arena, the 25 mph south wind danced around us as if it, too, were in on the hijinks.
About 100 people came to participate in the flash mob. I recognized quite a few people that I knew from random places. People from all ages and categories came, and at least three local colleges were represented in attendees: Friends University, Butler Community College and Wichita State University.
WU Shock showed up wearing a “Taylor-made” T-shirt displaying his affection for Swift. The T-shirt was decorated with a lovingly pasted picture of the singer, accompanied by the epigram, “Wu belong to me,” written in glitter fabric paint.
I briefly wondered why Freddy Falcon wasn’t there, but then I figured he’d rather be flying on such a breezy day.
We arrived at the southwest entrance of the arena close to 6 p.m., so we socialized for a little while until it was time for the freeze.
I hadn’t practiced a pose, so I wondered what I would be doing for the freeze. I needn’t have worried. A group on the northeast side of the plaza danced the chicken dance to the guitar and vocals of Joshua Melcher from the local band Artfully Folded Paper.
I decided to join them.
And so it was that as we frolicked in a circle, linking arms and spinning around, Ebright blew the whistle and we all stopped. All our movement and all our sound simply paused. The plaza grew quiet.
There I was in mid-step, sprawl-legged with arms open wide and mouth agape with stilled laughter. I’m sure I had a strange look on my face.
But I stood there for three minutes, moving nothing but my eyes. I faced east, away from the bulk of the flash mob crowd, but I still had a pretty good view of events.
To my south, one girl — with an expression of utter delight — held an open guitar case while leaning back on a short concrete pillar. To my north, Melcher faced away from the circle holding his guitar in mid-strum.
As the concert-goers recovered from the shock and started getting louder, a group of young girls to my south paused, curious. I heard one say “come on, let’s go” to the others three times before they finally walked away, stumped.
Through peripheral vision, I saw a cameraman shoot my chicken dance group in one swooping motion.
Three minutes was such a very short time for me to stand still. I was alert and energized the whole time, and I wish we’d held our freeze for a few minutes longer.
But as the whistle blew the second time, I fell quickly back into stride in the chicken dance. We sang another stanza and then whooped for joy, our job well done.
As we shared brief comments afterward with flash mobsters from elsewhere in the plaza, a common theme was present: We all wanted to do this again.