If you're in the West End of London this Thursday evening you may be surprised to see a very large group of people suddenly converge on an unsuspecting location, mill around for a few minutes doing something a bit strange, then disperse as suddenly as they appeared. This is the concept of the flash mob, occurring this week in the UK for the very first time. If you're interested in taking part you should check out this information page and then maybe sign up to receive further instructions about exact time and location. An email detailing when and wheretoassemble duly arrived in my inbox this morning, but the final destination remains top secret. Sounds fun though. Might see you there?
Details of previous American flash mobs: • New York FM1: It all started in Claire's Accessories, with an instant crowd encouraged to assemble and browse through a selection of useless trinkets. Listen to an eye-witness report here.
• New York FM2: 100 people gathered round one particular carpet in the rug department of Macy's department store. Any member of the mob approached by a sales clerk was told to say they all lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York and wanted a love rug to play on. Eye-witness report here.
• New York FM3: 250 people gathered on the mezzanine floor of the Grand Hyatt hotel next to Grand Central Station. At 7:12 precisely the mobsters broke into spontaneous, thunderous applause for 15 seconds, then dispersed. Eye-witness reports here and here.
• New York FM4: The mobsters met in one of four bars, according to birthdate, then converged on fancy shoe shop Otto Tootsi Plohound. Here they remained for exactly five minutes, pretending to be on a coach tour from Maryland. Eye-witness reports report here and here.
• New York FM5: This flash mob assembled on a ledge in Central Park and made animal noises. - first gentle realistic bird calls, then gibbon-like shrieks and finally a crescendo of "Come and get some Nature!" Eye witness reports here, here and here.
• San Francisco FM1: The first West Coast mob assembled at 6:27 by a pedestrian crossing. They then spent the next 10 minutes crossing the street spinning clockwise with their arms outstretched. Eye-witness reports here and here.
