A group of students wearing red, blue, yellow and green shirts gathered on the North Lawn on Wednesday with nothing but headphones, MP3 players and deflated balloons.
Students were told to download a 40-minute MP3 file, synchronize their watches and play the recording at exactly 2 p.m., at which point instructions would be given to them, according to the event page.
Jaclyn Gutierrez, a 19-year-old UF marketing sophomore and director of Reitz Union Board Entertainment’s Arts Committee, created a partnership with Improv Everywhere to host the flash mob.
“It’s just a joyful activity that you probably wouldn’t have the guts to do on your own. It would also be really creepy on your own,” Gutierrez said. “But when you do it with a group of people, it’s fun.”
Improv Everywhere, a New York City-based prank collective, is currently touring these Mp3 Experiment events at international festivals and college campuses, according to the official website. UF is the first college campus in Florida to participate, Gutierrez said.
The recorded instructions, given by an omniscient voice named Steve, gave different commands from awkward handshakes with strangers to dancing like an animal to following a random person, said 19-year-old Robert Taylor, a UF mathematics sophomore who participated.
“It’s good fun,” Taylor said. “You just have an excuse to fool around in public.”
As the group completed each new activity, passers-by would stop and stare.
Sarah Brinkerhoff, an 18-year-old UF engineering freshman, came by the lawn to watch her friend participate in the flash mob.
“It was cool to see people’s reactions that didn’t know it was happening,” Brinkerhoff said.
The event ended with a balloon fight with the red and yellow shirts teaming on one side, leaving blue and green on the other end of the field.
Participant Brittany Doyle, a 19-year-old UF political science junior, felt the surprise was the best part of the event, though.
“I thought it was cool because we didn’t know what we were supposed to do,” Doyle said. “Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into (was the best part).”
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 11/14/2013 under the headline "Flash mob keeps participants guessing"
