A ridiculous amount of people showed up for the massive Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight in San Francisco. They were so eager to start the battle that they didn’t event wait until the clock struck 6pm. Here’s a short video I shot at the beginning of the chaos.
Here are a few photos of the Pillow Fight that I shot while there.
More coverage:
- San Francisco Chronicle
- GETV (video)
- SF Weekly: All Shook Down (photos)
- WHAT IM SEEING (photos & video)
- Mitch Aidelbaum (photos)
- Josh Wolf (video)
- Pete Beck (photos)
- Dave Schumaker (photos)
- Scott Schiller (audio)
- teekuleet (photos)
- Berderp (photos)
- Tara B (video)
- Kevin Y (video)
- Mike Ricca (photos)
- Ed Hunsinger (photos)
- Phil W (photos)
- Phil W (video)
- David Pan (photos)
- Ricky Montalvo (video)
- Victoria (photos)
- Jane Waterbury (photos)
- Chester (photos)
- Steve Rhodes (photos)
- Miquel (photos)
- Lou Huang (photos)
- Danger Ranger (photos)
- Aziz K. (video)
- J. Rai (photos)
- Santa Rosa Press Democrat (video)
- bloopy (video)
- Eric (photos)
- Chris Mears (photos)
- Bryan Costales (Photos)
- Leah (photos)
- Josh Otis (stereoscopic photos)
- Tony Rotundo (photos)
- Ellis (photos)
- Juliette Melton (photos)
- Tom P. (video)
If you shot any photos or video, add your links in the comments.
UPDATE 1: Scott Schiller captured some great binaural audio walking around the crowd with in-ear microphones and a Minidisc.
UPDATE 2: Here’s GETV’s coverage of the Pillow Fight.
photos by Scott Beale
Here Are A Few Related Posts You Might Enjoy:
- Photos & Video of San Francisco Pillow Fight 2007
- San Francisco Pillow Fight 2009 Photos & Video
- San Francisco Pillow Fight 2006 Photos
- International Pillow Fight Day 2008
- 3rd Annual Pillow Fight in San Francisco on Valentine’s Day
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my goodness, that looks awesome!!! So many many people. Thank you for going, beating the hell out of others and taking photos and filming some. Awesome!
great shots — missed seeing you though. i just posted my pictures, the set can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/petebeck/sets/72157603914110337/
The number of people who show up grows exponentially every year! It’s crazy!
Pictures here: http://flickr.com/photos/kulangot/sets/72157603910750454/
Photos and video found here
http://berderp.blogspot.com/2008/02/sf-pillow-fight-2008.html
_berDerp!
Wow, what a delight that was! One zillion people, and at least twice that many flying feathers.
Video of the beginning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiKBasVsNmE
Another short clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2iv3vSA-E
Pity there was such a horrible mess. Guess people don’t subscribe to a “leave no trace” policy -but they should! Poly fiber fill is definitely not biodegradable, people! A smallish crowd was still going strong well past 8:30 – but no one was cleaning up. Wonder if they will let us do it again next year. Looks like the police had arrived on the scene and were going to break things up…
Video from around 6:30pm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_mT2FuSxi0
My photos are uploading while I head to bed; tired and still coughing feathers, but smiling at an evening well spent… http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrabbit/sets/72157603914634249/
who knew that teddy bears doubled as a pillow fight weapon?
Some photos
http://lordphil.multiply.com/photos/album/14
…and video
http://lordphil.multiply.com/video/item/13/Pillow_Fight_San_Francisco_2008_Video
Cheers!
Phil
This was my first time going, and it is was a fun event! Peeps seemed to enjoy themselves and play fair too.
Some of the images I captured thru my lens are on my flickr photostream. Hope you’ll take a minute to visit and LQQK.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prodesma/sets/72157603911737358/
Cheers.
Finally posted my pictures! What a crazy night. Getting right in the middle of that with a camera isn’t the smartest thing to do. People swing at anyone they come in contact with. Nuts!
Anyway, my photo set is here:
http://flickr.com/photos/rockbandit/sets/72157603912847980/
It was a pleasure bumping into you and chatting briefly. Until next time!
Binaural audio (in-ear mics + Minidisc) from the start, and walking into the crowd for a moment (wear headphones for the full effect)..
http://freshly-ground.com/data/audio/binaural/20080214%20-%20Pillow%20Fight%2C%20SF.mp3
Pillow Fight, a poetry in motion Video: http://www.blog001.net/2008/02/pillow-fight-a.html
Here’s my set from the Pillow Fight. More to come as I have time to process them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vicster/sets/72157603910848876/
Went to the first one in 2006 and went again last night. Happened to run into a guy carrying a Food Bank barrel and it turns out it was Rene, the guy who emailed Laughing Squid and started it all. Turns out he had heard about it in Toronto in 2005 and picked Valentine’s Day at random since it was the next holiday coming up.
I will say I think it’s starting to get out of hand. A few minutes in, there were so many people it was impossible to move or get out of Justin Herman. Add to that, I saw a number of people who violently hitting others in the face with pillows just stuffed at the end like a hammer. There was one kid who was running around with one of these and knocking people out with wound-up swings. I too will be surprised if the city lets us try to do this again.
Even more photos here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/janewaterbury/.
This was my first pillow fight, I’m still coughing up feathers.
Photos from last night:
http://www.chesternet.org/?p=2311
I went in 2006, but didn’t make 2007. Was pretty surprised at how big this year was. It’s not quite as cool without the “flash mob” surprise factor that the first year had, but it was fun to see such a massive crowd walloping each other with pillows.
And I also was thinking that it’s gotten so big that I’m wondering how the City is going to handle it next year. Or, alternately, when it’s going to go the way of other spontaneous S.F. crowd celebrations that end up turning into ugly and drunken contentious messes (like Union Square New Year’s Eve or Castro Halloween).
Till now, it’s been a lot of fun and hopefully it stays that way.
http://whatimseeing.com/2008/02/3rd-annual-v-day-pillow-fight.html
Some more photos:
http://www.hudin.com/photos/gallery/pillow_fight_2008/
It was my first time and people were not gentle…
LOL!!! I wish I was there! My friend told me about it but I was out of town. Hope they ll do it again next year!
I have a couple photos up, working on a bunch more and should be up later tonight. But here’s the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lou/sets/72157603911549794/
I think people need to respect the “don’t hit people with cameras” rule… I was trying to get in close to the action and someone decapitated my flash. Whoever it was just took off. Not cool man… not cool.
Here’s the video I shot yesterday!
http://vimeo.com/694277
Enjoy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wink/tags/pillowfight2008/
Lou, it’s not so much people not respecting the rule as it’s just total chaos out there. My friend got elbowed numerous times in the head, and I got my glasses knocked off, but that’s expected when we’re all packed like sardines.
PS I know it’s like finding a set of keys in a plaza covered with feathers, but did anyone find a set of keys?
Photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/loupiote/sets/72157594538797051/
since i’m slow and kind of suck at editing it took me a while, but i was finally able to slap together a quick and dirty vid using the horrible shaky footage i shot. . . posted it here:
http://www.vimeo.com/696170
the first half is random shots of people milling around waiting for 6pm, the 2nd half is of the pillow fight itself. . . hope you don’t find it too boring!. . .
Hey, check out the pillow brawl set to classical music:
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=MEDIA&bcpid=770169275&bclid=769464397&bctid=1417338084
AWESOME!!!
I have a guy in his underwear, happy people, feather angel and pillow on a rope.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ewu777/sets/72157603920651346/
Here’s the video I made; for some reason the You Tube version is stalled, but it’s up on my site courtesy of Blip and perhaps the You Tuber’s will find it at some point…
http://joshwolf.net/blog/?p=365
A little late, but: http://flickr.com/photos/chrisjm/sets/72157603925926007/
Actual jobs delayed two days’ worth of photos until today. We divided them into prelude and the actual pillow fight. It ran too long so we did not capture the aftermath, but will try to do so next year.
I have a small set of ten stereoscopic (3-D) photos on my flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/60901665@N00/sets/72157603929294460/
The photos are not anaglyphs (the red-blue glasses kind) but can be free-viewed using the crosseye method, which is pretty self-explanatory. Directions are posted underneath the photos, too.
My shots from the pillow fight!:
http://tonyrotundo.org/images/fun/08FUNPILLOW/index.html
I found a bunch of stuff at the pillow fight, and am getting around to posting it on Craig’s List. Check out the SF Bay lost & found section, posting on Monday night (or possibly as late as Tuesday very early AM, like just after midnight.
Many, many images from the trenches of the battle, here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ellis.au/SanFranciscoPillowFight2008
i was there and it was absolutely amazing! i’ve gone through sooo many flickr albums looking for pics of me and my friends! 5 so far. if you didn’t go, GO next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! make it a tradition! thanks SO much for this list of links, it’s helped so much in my search for pics!