Fringe time in Adelaide is a very busy part of the year and we decided to use it to jumpstart out recruitment for the Adelaide Flash Mob. Just before this event we brought on another organiser, Laura (Miss Kitty), and she had some fresh ideas on how to increase the participation and hype surrounding our events. After a some lengthy late-night msn talks, the ‘Fast Fringe Flashes’ concept was born.
The plan was to have an event each weekend for the last 3 weekends of the Fringe, and for each event we would do several mobs, making the events around an hour in length. We thought that this format would be more of an incentive for mobbers to turn up as they would be getting an hour of fun instead of just five minutes. We included all of the fringe events under the ‘AFM#4: Fast Fringe Flashes’ banner.
Reports
I think its best to let the participants tell the story of how the events went so I’ll post the video and a short description below and if you participated in any of the events then please leave a comment at the end, even just a few words.
AFM#4.1- We’re Not Worthy (Part 1)
Date: Sunday, March 2, 2008
Meet: Hindmarsh Square- South West Corner
Time: 3pm- 4pm
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcQgIRGwj1c]
(also on youtube)
More videos and full reports to be found after the break.
I have to make a special mention of our video guy, Ken, who has filmed and edited most of our events including this one. This video is one of the best yet, I especially enjoy the music selection, nice work Ken.
Mobs
- ATM Attack
- Line Up
- Drop!
- We’re Not Worthy
*The idea for ATM Attack was to act like we were really into ATM’s and get quite excited when someone uses one. We blended into the crowd around the commonwealth bank atm’s at the Rundle Street end of Rundel Mall. When someone started withdrawing money we clapped, cheered and chanted then dispersed as they finished and left. Ken just told me recently that apparently someone found our website by typing “random cheering in rundel mall” into Google, which was probably someone who witnessed this event.
*The Line Up mob was one of our most successful so far in my opinion. To start, I randomly stood next to an occupied bench and casually waited. Laura and some others quickly joined me and started acting impatient. The lady on the bench slid along and I sat down as the line continued to form. If you’ve just watched the video, go back and watch it again, this time look the reactions we got in this one from passers by. It was amazing how much interest a bunch of people lining up for a bench could generate, by the time we dispersed quite a crowd had gathered.
*Drop! was based on something we’d seen in a youtube video from a Japanese TV show. Basically, someone shouts out DUCK! and everyone drops to the ground. Unfortunately the video crew missed the actual ducking and just got some shots of us crouching on the ground. This one had the potential to be great but unfortunately we didn’t really have enough people to get the right impact although we did get some weird looks. One mobber dropped to the ground so enthusiastically that they broke their birthday present that they were carrying… sorry.
*The namesake of this event, included by popular demand, We’re not Worthy was great fun. This has been a popular mob all around the world and there are many vids on youtube dedicated to it. If you can’t tell from the video, we were worshipping the Myer Centre at its middle entrance. This one also got quite a crowd of onlookers, who knows what they thought they were witnessing. Someone even joined in next to us to get a photo haha.
AFM#4.2- Fast Fringe Flashes (Part 2)
Date: Saturday, March 8, 2008
Meet: Adelaide CBD
Time: 2pm- 3pm
A couple of days before this event we looked at the weekend forecast and decided to cancel as it was going to be a scorcher. What we didn’t know was that it was only the beginning of what turned out to be a record breaking streak of scorching hot days (18 days over 35 degrees C).
AFM#4.3- One Last Hurrah! (Part 3)
Date: Saturday, March 15, 2008
Meet: Fringe Alley off Vaughn Place off Rundle Street
Time: 7pm- 8pm
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U210r15RBT0]
(also on youtube)
(check out the full conga video on youtube)
Mobs
- ATM Attack Redux
- Demand and Demand
- Conga!
*We thought that ATM Attack could be made better than the first time so we decided to use it as our opening mob again for this event. However, this time we did the cheering a full 3 times before dispersing. This event was on the last Saturday night of the fringe and there was people everywhere. Right after we cheered the first atm user, the manager of the restaurant next door came out with a scowl on his face. His eyes scanned the crowd but of course we had all melted back into the general public by then. When the next atm user approached we jumped up and starting clapping and cheering and chanting even louder than before. We even managed to get some kids from a near-by table involved. The restaurant manager seemed to be getting more and more frustrated at this random and unexplainable behaviour but we decided to go for one more. The last one was by far the best, the chant of ATM ATM ATM rose to a roar. I sneaked a look around at the manager and he was waving his arms about and saying something although I couldn’t hear what. To be fair, we generated a lot of interest around his place and a lot of the mobbers bought something while they were there.
*Demand and Demand is a bit like the, ‘They Don’t Have Pepsi?!?‘ mob we did at the end of last year. The idea was to stand in line for the Fringe Tix booth at the entrance to the Garden of Unearthly Delights and when we get to the front just casually ask for an iced coffee. When the other mobbers hear the request for iced coffee they quickly swarm the window all asking and demanding for iced coffee. By some bizarre coincidence the guy in the booth had an unopened iced coffee sitting on the desk in front of the window. When we asked for iced coffee we picked his up and held it infront of us and said, nope thats mine. When the rest of the mobbers joined in we opened it up and skulled it right in front of us to our utter dismay.
*The Conga line idea was one of the most popular when we asked for feedback and possible mobs we could do. We started it around the Garden of Unearthly Delights and went all the way up Rundle Street and then dispersed at around Vaughn Place. We didn’t have any music at the time so we were all saying: Dada, dada, da-DA over and over again. The distance seemed ALOT shorter when we planned it and we didn’t realise how slow a Conga line actually moves. It was still pretty warm at that time and we were all hot and sweaty when we reached the end of our conga journey but there wasn’t one person who didn’t have a grin on their face.
All in all the Fast Fringe Flashes series was a HUGE success. We managed to get a good core group of dedicated mobbers together which will help us to build throughout the next couple of months and beyond. When next years Fringe rolls around we’ll definately have to plan something special.