Adelaide Flash Mob

For this event, we did four mob activities along Rundle Mall on Saturday August 1st 2009.

We did things a bit differently by giving out the instructions before the event while usually mobbers don’t get them until they show up on the day and receive a sheet of papper with the details. It seemed to work in getting more people out as this was our biggest flashmob event so far with around 50 people.

Check out the instructions for the event including details of each activity.  Watch the video below and read the comments from event participants.  Add your own comments.

Funny Video Moments

3:20- Guy in white jumper and blonde girl in pink top arrive after Chibo Cheers has finished and stand around waiting for something to happen…

3:55- Guy in black jumper with a coke walks by with a smile on his face

4:02- Two girls in red, apparently they weren’t part of the mob and just decided to join in.  At the end they said “why did we just do that?”

4:12- Tall, thin guy with light coloured clothing standing to the left of the girl with the camera, looking around interested

4:34- Girl in denim jacket and girl in brown jacket enter from the right and look on shocked.  They make another appearance at 4:55 (behind the pole) and are left standing confused once everyone disperses

Long time mobbers would recognise that 3/4 of the mobs we did were ones we’d done in the past so we had a good feeling that they would work.  The Line was no exception.  There’s something about a long line of people that just turns heads, and when you add that they guy at the front is holding a sign saying “please line up here” but with no explanation of why, people must stare while their minds search for an explanation.

Everyone seems to be in agreement that Chibo Cheers was the best activity and the most fun to participate in.  As expected, the cheering and clapping quickly brought a crowd of onlookers.  It’s hard to say whether they were more confused by the subject of our commotion or the speed of our arrival and departure.

Our last two activities were more subtle both visually and audibly.  Some people in their own little worlds just walked on by without even noticing, those more observant stopped, realising that something wasn’t quite right.  I think Boing Boing would’ve been better if we had people look in different directions and stand not so much in a circle formation. Murmer worked pretty well, might have perhaps been better if we’d spread out a bit more.

To end the event, those who wanted to headed into City Cross for some food and a chat.  In order to identify themselves as mobbers they were instructed to put their left hand on their head and walk around until they met up with others doing likewise.  This wasn’t captured on the video but it was pretty funny and certainly confused the security guard on duty.

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We love hearing about funny bystander reactions so if you can remember any or notice any good ones in the video, please put them in the comments.  Here’s some other questions we’d like to get your answers to.

1. Which of the four activities did you think worked the best?
2. Do you think the fact that we gave out the instructions before the event made it better or worse?
3. Do you have any ideas for future events?
4. Any other comments or suggestions?

Teaser 1 broken fences free

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Teaser 2

Sorry for the delay in getting these videos live, uploading to both Facebook and YouTube unfortunately takes quite a bit of time. But now, without further ado, we present the videos for AFM6, “Food Court Fun Run” and “Ship Ahoy!”, both viewable from those links or after the jump

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Also, we’d like to take this opportunity to announce the opening of our AFM Community Forum. It’s a place that we’ve set up to discuss everything flash mob related, and just to generally chat amongst ourselves. So, come on in, sign yourself up free kicking the dog , and have a chat with us. The link will be permanently posted over on the right there for future reference >>>

AFM Community Forum

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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

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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

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  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
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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

Teaser Original

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

Teaser 3 

Ninja Raid on Adelaide ‘The Video’

(tip: watch in high quality on youtube)