Pillowfight!

Whoever came up with the idea of a random pillowfight in New York city deserves the Nobel Peace Prize (more than Henry Kissinger, anyway). Actually, I think it was these guys

Anyway, here’s the deal, rock up at Union Square at 3pm with a pillow and start hitting people with it… easy enough.

Time: 2:40pm, Location: 86th Street Subway. It seems that I’m not the only person on my way to a pillow fight.

In fact, it seems that some people take this whole thing quite seriously.

Time: 2:50 Location: Times Square 42nd Street Subway, everywhere I look, there are people carrying pillows… ok, well, I definitely won’t be the only person there.

Time: 3pm Location: Union Square 14th Street, just outside the subway station (you can see it in the top right corner of the shot).

Oh my, these people take their pillowfighting quite seriously. I’d be willing to bet that all these feathers didn’t come from the pigeons that normally hang about union square.

So many feathers… and so many pretty birds… *raised eyebrows*

I searched for higher ground in an effort to fathom the extent of the pillowfighting…

There were pillows everywhere… there was an equally large crowd standing behind me and to either side.

…and there were also photographers everywhere… and, thankfully, little of the hostility that I experienced just yesterday.

Seeing as there were pillows everywhere… some people felt like having a little nap.

I took a half-time breather and went up to whole foods to have a look at the whole situation.

Some people mustn’t have gotten the memo – it is a pillowfight, not a mattressfight.

This was a really good idea… goggles.

I’m not the only phtography enthusiast here, this is a Mamiya medium-format camera… oooohhhh.

A column of feathers.

Oh… think of all the geese, and ducks… and chickens… and drag queens.

…and another pillow explodes.

The makeup of the pillowfighters was very varied, there were high school kids, college kids, creepy old men (like me) and, of course, families.

Don’t forget that it is the easter weekend, and how appropriate – a bunny!

Down on the street, it is gorilla warfare!

By about 4:30pm, the riot had died down somewhat and there was a calm ‘eye’ of the storm in the middle. Need something soft to lie down on? Here, have a pillow…

People getting cosy in the pillow-pile.

…but it was short-lived. The park rangers tried to break the whole thing up and this caused the sleeping volcano to erupt again.

Oh, the chaos of it all.

I’m not sure if this guy was part of the cleanup crew, or just a visitor from a secret but nearby nuclear test facility.

It reminds me of the good ol’ days when musketeers would stand in rows and the front row would crouch and shoot while the second row were releoading.

I wonder if those pillows will be there in the morning.

By 5pm, the cleanup was well underway, while small pockets of resistance continued to fight it out.

Even the subway steps were not immune to a small amout of blanketing by pillow-fluff.

And yours truly also copped a fair bit of pillow-fluff. Here I am, armed with my weapon.

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