Finally, the report from our second Flash Mob; Tapitty Tap.
This is the email sent out to mobbers on Friday 14th December 2007:
G’day Mobbers,
The time is almost upon us.
In order for our mob to be as unexpected as possible to our ‘audience,’ the specific details of the action to take place will be kept under wraps until tomorrow. This email contains instructions for you to follow to obtain those specific details, so listen in.
There are a couple of things we need to do first. Everyone needs to read these guidelines that we have created to ensure the mob works properly. If you have guests coming, you need to inform them of the guidelines also.
This mob isn’t entirely dependent on time cues, but it does help to have everyone on the same clock, so please visit this website and set your time piece to the local Australia/ Adelaide time.
Details:
General Location: Near the beach end of Jetty Road
Approx. Time: 1pm
To get the rest of the details you need to come to the Playground at Wigley Reserve between 11:50am and 12:30 pm on Saturday. Find a man dressed in a blue t-shirt, blue shorts and carrying a green clipboard and approach him. This man is known as Mr Penguin; stand in front of him on one leg and he will hand you a piece of paper with the rest of the instructions. Do not talk during this exchange.
Mr. Penguin will only be at the Playground between 11:50 am and 12:30 pm so you must come within those times.
If it’s a hot day remember to be sun smart. Mobbers will be invited to meet up post mob to discuss the event and share thoughts/ ideas.
Adelaide Flash Mob
This is what happened:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_eRZwiIYpQ]
Here are the instructions that mobbers received after meeting Mr Penguin at the playground:
AFM#2: Tappitty Tap
Locations to be aware of for this mob:
• Walkway area- walking area bordered by the tall stone monument with a ship on top, the start of the jetty and the two grass areas.
• The Jetty- the long walkway thing sticking out into the sea from the land which people fish off of.
• Right Rail- the rail on the right hand side of the jetty if you are looking along the jetty from the land.
By 12:50 pm you should be generally scattered in and around the Walkway area. Spread out anywhere in this area (including the grass), look natural and make sure you have a clear view of the Walkway area in between the monument and The Jetty.
At 1pm Mr Penguin (the man in blue) will take a walk through the Walkway area and then freeze mid-step.
As soon as he freezes you should quickly and quietly form a line behind him facing The Jetty.
Once most of the line has formed, Mr Penguin will continue his walk towards The Jetty. When he gets about halfway, the next person in line should start following him. When that person gets halfway, the next person should set out also and so on.
Once Mr Penguin reaches The Jetty he will look for the first available position on the Right Rail and take up a stance of looking out onto the beach with both hands on the Right Rail.
Mr Penguin will then start to tap on the Right Rail in a pattern that goes something like this: tap clap tap tap clap, tap clap tap tap clap, tap clap tap tap clap, and so on.
As each person reaches The Jetty, they should look for the next available position on the Right Rail and begin to tap and clap in time with Mr Penguin until all mobbers are lined up along the Right Rail tapping and clapping.
Continue to tap and clap until Mr Penguin stops. Once everyone has stopped, Mr Penguin will turn and walk away from the Right Rail. Everyone should then follow him keeping in line. Mr Penguin will go for a walk around the area; everyone should follow him, keeping in line and copy everything he does.
To finish off, Mr Penguin will walk back into the Walkway area and once again freeze mid-step. At this point people should one by one walk off and blend back into the crowd starting with the last person in the line until only Mr Penguin remains.
Mobbers should not speak throughout the entire mob. Everyone is invited to meet back at the location where you picked up these instructions to discuss and enjoy the mob with your fellow mobbers.
Please Do Not let these instructions get seen by non mobbers. Please don’t litter.
How it went:
As you can see by the video we had a lot less people than we had hoped for and were led to beleive were coming based on emailed expressions of interest. We opened a discussion on Facebook to try and figure out why this was and got a range of reasons. We got incredibly unlucky with the weather… it was raining that morning which is when most people would have looked out the window and decided whether they were coming or not. We also underestimated the effect of this crazy time of year when theres so many things on with people getting ready for xmas etc. Glenelg might also have been a bit harder to get to than our first mob which was in town which also could’ve affected the turnout.
We had a bit of a chat afterwards with some of the mobbers who turned up and they all said that they had had fun, and once again it was fun to organise so thats all that matters in the long run. I’m sure we left some people wondering what was going on as they were strolling on the jetty or sitting on the grass. There was once particular couple who were sitting on a bench that the video didnt completely capture. I didn’t see it personally but I’m told that we got a good ‘what the’ reaction from them as we all silently walked around them in a line.
Thanks to Sam King and Ken Kimber for the video and of course the mobbers who showed up. The small turn out obviously wasn’t as good as a larger turn out but it was many times better than no turn out would have been so thanks again guys.
-Nick