Ninja Raid on Adelaide Event Report
Updated: June 24th.
Thanks to everyone who left comments below, I think they really do add something positive to an event report like this. If you haven’t yet, then comment away, theres still some space left. I thought I’d better update this report with all the resources etc so people coming to the site in the future will be able to read all about it in one place. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while but have been super busy with uni stuff as I’m sure a few of you have too.
What?
For those of you who don’t know, the ‘Ninja Raid on Adelaide’ was an event hosted by the AFM on Saturday May 24th. The basic idea was to get a huge group of people together, dress up as Ninjas, run around the city and make a great video about it. You can find the full instructions including how to construct the Ninja head gear here.
Why?
This question has been asked many times and I think the answer is different for each person. I participate in Flash Mobs and related events because I like to be different, I like to make spectators out of unsuspecting people and make them go ‘what the?,’ I like to document the event and see the impact that the videos have on other people and I like participating because its great fun. Why do you like to Mob?
Wrap Up
The event went very well and was definately our biggest and most successful event yet. Our best estimate puts the mob at 150- 200 people but we know we had at least 100. We had 4 groups each with a group leader (who wore coloured arm and head bands) and each group had different tasks in the campaign to catch the Pirate Prince. We got some great reactions from bystanders which you can see in the video if you look closely and read about in the comments below.
We also had a bunch of guys from Parkour SA doing tricks and stunts throughout the event. If you’d like to learn more about what they do or get involved yourself, check out their website and forum
.
Media
We contacted the TV stations and Sunday Mail before hand and were happy to see a photographer/reporter as well as a Channel 7 camerman come out to cover the event. Apparently when the Channel 7 guy came to the meeting place to ask us what the plan for the day was, he asked several people what we were going to do and got several answers of ‘its a secret, we can’t tell you,’ ha ha… great work Ninjas!
- We got a story and a bunch of photos on the Adelaide Now Website (owned by the Advertiser) and then a follow up story in the Sunday Mail
the day after.
- Unfortunatley we didn’t make the News that night or Sunday night but we have heard rumours that we were on on Monday night. If anyone happens to have the footage we’d love to get a copy!
- About a week later we discovered a full page story and some pictures on a very popular Korean News Website, CyWorld (in Korean). We still haven’t got an official translation yet so if anyone can help us out, it would be much appreciated.
- As a result of the Raid, Alex and I were interviewed on Radio Adelaide’s ‘The Range’ on Friday, check out the podcast here
.
Resources
We are lucky at the AFM to have a dedicated and talented media manger, Ken. He had his work cut out for him for this event as he had to film us go past and then sprint to the front of the group once more to film us go past again, then rinse and repeat. We also couldn’t have done it without the help of our volunteer filmers, so thank to them also. The video turned out great and seems to get better every time you watch it. If you watch it one youtube, remember to do it in high quality as its a much better experience.
I have posted the picture sets below followed by the video teasers and finally the finished video. Don’t forget to check out our next big event, ‘Ninjas vs Pirates, The Battle for Adelaide,’ happening on August 9th.
-Nick
corelyy2003′s photostream on Flickr
Adelaide Flash Mob photostream on Flickr
Ninja Raid on Adelaide ‘The Video’
(tip: watch in high quality on youtube)
May 24th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Bahaha, today was awesome!
I was running around wearing colours with two other girls dressed the same. xD
We were the colourful ones. :]
May 24th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
but that defeats the purpose of being a ninja
you don’t want to be noticed… STEALTH MODE!
May 24th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
we were hiding behind the others. ^_________^
May 24th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Yes, 100 ninjas running down Rundle Mall are very hard to spot. Although I admit I was one of the colourful ninjas because I hadn’t intended to join in. Darn channel 7 – we’d better get a mention in their next news update….otherwise we could ninja-storm the Channel 7 building!
May 24th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
woot today was awesome!!
Go the ParkourSA Ninjas
May 24th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
You’re right! Damn Channel 7, if we did we’d probably get a whole half hour dedicated to us. xD
May 25th, 2008 at 12:03 am
yeah.. i’ll be up early to get my copy of the sunday mail.. those pics on adelaidenow looked awesome.
May 25th, 2008 at 10:52 am
ahahaha, i was the ninja green ninja doing breakdancing lol.
i wish it went on longer.lol
GO PARKOUR SA NINJAS!!
May 26th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I saw two pirates running away from all the ninjas. Was there a flash group for pirates? Everyone knows ninja’s can kick pirates peg-legged ass any day of the week! Great job!
May 26th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Glad to see someone in Adelaide is doing some flash mob stuff….do you have a mailing list or s.m.u.g. system for letting people know when the next event is?
May 26th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
@mArc: we only organised one pirate and that was corey
May 26th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
@D: We have a number of ways people can get involved including a mailing list, details here: http://www.adelaideflashmob.com/?p=41
May 27th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Quick question – what was the purpose of the Ninja mob? I thought it was protesting against Scientology – right?
AdelaideNow didn’t seem to specify why we did it, so I’d like to write a letter to the editor about how the writer should have done a bit more research.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
@Amy: Adelaide Flash Mob is strictly not affiliated with any organistion with the exception of our university clubs. It’s our position to remain completely neutral on all political, charitable issues.
Some Scientology protesters came to hand out some posters at our event, but they we’re not part of adelaide flash mob.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:45 am
While we were hiding around the malls balls, some old guy wandered past muttering to himself “must be some kind of weird Lord of the Rings thing”.
almost wet myself laughing. then a lady walked past and asked me if we were some kind of cult and told us we looked really scary. that was truly priceless. my first mob, but definitely not my last.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
This was a funny moment that happened just after we’d crowded around the balls and ‘protected them’ and we were heading down the lane way. There was a girl sitting on a bench just around the corner in the lane way, Alex (red ninja) and I (white ninja) were at the front and as we came around the corner the girls face went from semi surprised to really surprised. Then when the whole crowd of other ninjas came around behind us she dropped her cigarette, jumped about two feet in the air and off the bench and starting turning to make a run for it. As I passed by her she said ‘Oh my god that scared the sh%t out of me.’- ha ha funny stuff
May 29th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Thanks Alex
Some people were handing out flyers at the start of the run so I was a little confused (not that I minded if the protest WAS against scientology).
Glad to know we’re neutral and having fun!
May 30th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
My friend got left behind as he was running up to the spectators saying “Watashi wa NINJA desu!” Holding out star stickers and saying “Dozo!”
He looked up from one such exchange to notice all the ninja’s had disappeared looked around for a moment before a guy said to him “They went that way mate.” and pointed off in the direction we’d gone.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Ha ha – that’s great. You guys should all join couchsurfing.com and help us really boot our local communities up the coiter!! Great work!!
Beni MC.
BrisBEN.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
awesome, i wish i had gone