Pillow fight flash mob to happen in Omaha this Saturday, June 20

What I believe to be Omaha’s first flash mob, The Great Omaha Pillow Fight, will be taking place at Memorial Park this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. It’s creator, Jon Cady, has been entertaining the thought of organizing one for the past year, and after a “late night in Lincoln” he decided to take action. “The…

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What I believe to be Omaha’s first flash mob, The Great Omaha Pillow Fight, will be taking place at Memorial Park this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. It’s creator, Jon Cady, has been entertaining the thought of organizing one for the past year, and after a “late night in Lincoln” he decided to take action.

“The pillow fight came about [after] a group of friends and I just finished watching Jurassic Park the Musical,” Jon said, “which was just a production put on by a bunch of college students, just a group of them, in a backyard.

“The creative juices were flowing, we were sitting in a coffee shop, and it just kind of hit me: we should have a pillow fight — with Omaha.”

The next day he created a Facebook event and invited 80 of his friends. “And then they invited their friends, and their friends invited their friends, and it just took off from there,” said Jon. Indeed, it has. At the time this post was published, the Facebook event had 587 confirmed guests and 1,263 maybe attending (as well as 1,595 not attending and 504 awaiting reply).

With inspiration from pillow fights held in other cities, Jon really hopes to see people show up in costumes and body paint. He guaranteed me he’ll be sporting the latter, and he also assured me that his pillow won’t have rocks or marbles, which is really his only rule. “The main rule: don’t be a jerk.” If you don’t have a pillow to bring, you’re encouraged to come watch and take pictures and videos. He’s asking people to tag their tweets and flickr photos #omahapillowfight.

Jon hopes that those who participate and watch can take “a break from everyday life, and just have a pillow fight and be a kid again, to release some stress in a safe way with other people.” If that happens, and a few people show up (he’s hoping for a 1,000), he said he’ll be ready to organize another.

Check out my interview with Jon in which he goes a bit more into his background and Saturday’s pillow fight, which will commence with the sound of an air horn at 2:00 p.m. this Saturday

Jon posted this video on the Facebook event with the comment: “We can top this. 😀

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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