sadly, world pillow fight day didn't last too long before cops showed up to break it up.there weren't many people, maybe about 125 people, with about another 50 standing around watching or standing in line to get into the museum. i perched myself near one of the lions and watched. everyone laughed and carried on. rules were observed (don't hit hard, don't aim for the head, etc) and it was a pleasant time in the saturday sun.
next thing i knew, a cop showed up and yelled at the crowd to break it up. a few resisted or ignored mr. cop but once people started being hauled off into police cars, the reticent crowd dispersed.
i overheard a cop saying, "go home! the paddy wagon is on the way and anyone still hangin' around will be taken to jail!" this didn't really do much to clear the crowd. one guy decided he wanted to make snow angels but anther cop quickly stopped him.
i happened to ask someone who worked for the museum if they were aware this event had been planned. "no, we had no idea." i asked if he knew about the event last year. "they did this last year?" mr. museum worker was quite friendly and mentioned they always have something happening in front of the museum and that they don't really pay any mind to these things as the sidewalk is considered public property.
i also asked a cop if they were aware the event had been planned and had been put on last year as well. she told me they had no idea and had been called in because of a high volume of calls regarding feathers floating around on Michigan Avenue. when i asked her if the police department had been warned about the event beforehand, would they have tried to stop it? she said no, that they would have posted a few cops on duty to make sure nothing got out of hand.
as for the mess, the pillow fight site had posted a request asking people to bring a bag to clean up any mess the crowd made during the event. since the cops cleared everyone away before clean up was possible, this lone person attempted to clean up.
sadly, massive fail on the pillow party but oh well... next year is always another year. click here to view my flickr photostream.
