Saturday morning I’m sitting at my desk, drinking my coffee, when a little notification box showed up in the bottom corner of Facebook. “Two of your friends are interested in going to an event.” I click on it, thinking it’s probably a concert. It directs me to an event page titled “Pillow Fight Day Cleveland.” A pillow fight within walking distance of my house? Say no more, I am 100% interested.
The weather forecast wasn’t the best but I figured if you were the kind of person to go to a public pillow fight, you probably wouldn’t mind a few raindrops, right? The weather mostly held off. While by 3pm the temperature had dropped significantly from where it was at the beginning of the day, it wasn’t raining. A little bit of snow started to fall but still over 200 people showed up. It was easily one of my favorite experiences so far this year… maybe ever.
I think, without a doubt, the star of the pillow fight was the person in the dinosaur costume. First of all, anyone whose train of thought is “Oh, a pillow fight? I should wear my dinosaur costume!” is cool in my book but everyone clearly loved beating up on the dinosaur. I feel like a lot of children are kind of shy and wouldn’t necessarily be all that comfortable hitting strange adults with their pillows but they took to that dinosaur like flies to honey. Poor dinosaur had to be SO tired at the end of fight!
I originally brought my camera in hopes of getting funny moment of impact shots but shortly after it started I realized I just wanted to shoot all the smiles. Everyone was just glowing with happiness. The crowd was incredibly diverse, people of all ages, races, and walks of life showed up. It was impossible to not smile watching all these strangers hitting each other with pillows. I’m getting all teary eyed typing this because it was seriously just so magical. Seeing adults act like children is my favorite.
Jeff and I didn’t bring along pillows this year, just cameras. 2017, I’m coming ready to fight. I already have it on my calendar.
xoxo
International Pillow Fight Day events happen in cities all across the world. The official website has a list of cities and where they’re being held, as well as tips of creating your own event if there isn’t already one happening in your city. You guys HAVE TO GO next year. I promise, there is nothing like seeing it in person.