Capitol Improv

Pillow Fight Day 2010

04.29.10

International Pillow Fight Day 2010 was one to remember!

Date: April 3rd 2010
# of Participants: 300+
Location: The National Mall / Dupont Circle

Capitol Improv members gathered near the Washington Monument and waited for the cue to begin. We had two of our agents improvise a yelling match on the mall with one twist. Instead of settling their differences with violence, they settled their differences with pillows!

After the initial improvised yelling match begins more and more pillows pop up to join in the battle. Photo By qbubbles

An agent gets an unexpected whomping! Photo by oberlep27

The area under the Washington Monument quickly filled with hundreds of pillow fighters! Photo By vacaphobia

After a while, the crowd reached well into the hundreds out on the National Mall. Photo By mlipin

A couple of people were daring enough to get up on people's shoulders, however they became very easy targets for the other pillow fighters! Photo By M.V. Jantzen

While there were a lot of people in their teens and twenties, all ages were represented at the pillow fight! Everyone from toddlers to seniors got in on the action! Photo By uno000

While we were worried that feathers from the burst pillows may cause Park Services to shut us down, we were so good at minimizing the litter from the event that some of them actually came out to cheer us on! Photo By qbubbles

An agent extends for a far-reaching hit. Photo By oberlep27

Quite a few reportes showed up to report on the pillow fight that day. Photo By oberlep27

We even had a pillow medic show up to take care of pillows wounded in battle! Photo By oberlep27

If there was ever a pillow down, the pillow medic was immediately on scene to patch it up! Photo By Tracieching

Unfortunately, there were pillows that didn't make it even after all the help the pillow medic could give. Photo By Tracieching

After the fighting wound down a bit at the Washington Monument, it was time to go play pillow-fight-based games up on DuPont Circle. We made sure to do a thorough job cleaning up before we left. Photo By qbubbles

After shifting up to DuPont for some games, the circle quickly filled with participants. Photo By uno000

Tons of people had an absolutely fantastic time. Photo By oberlep27

During the beginning fight, there were a group of people lining up and starting random charges into the main group of people. Photo By oberlep27

We did a couple games of capture the flag and then a game of zombie tag. They both got a bit intense and action packed! Photo By qbubbles

As is now tradition, we did the one-on-one pillow challenge yet again. It’s always fun to judge because judgment is based on “arbitrary and subjective criteria made up as the event goes on.” In fact, the funniest moment came when a group of two people never fought and instead made peace. They were both judged as winners for coming to terms with their differences. The very next people did the same thing and were both judged as losers for “copying the previous people and trying to suck up to the judge.”

After that we lined up for the one-on-one pillow fight bracket challenge. Photo By poppyott

The winner this year was dubbed "Asian Mafia" because he had help on the outside. This was a surprise upset because last year's winner came in 2nd place. Photo By poppyott

Unfortunately we did have one minor injury this year when someone took a hard swing to the face. It was just enough to give her a bloody nose. We immediately got Kleenex for her and called an ambulance just in case it was broken – but fortunately it wasn’t and the bleeding was quickly stopped so the ambulance was waved off. A hint for the “arbitrary and subjective” rules next year – hitting hard in the one-on-one challenge will not get you far.

Cobalt was kind enough to host our afterparty again with drink specials for us. The few of us that weren’t warn out from the day’s events had a great time partying when the event was over! Despite the injury it was a great mission and a great day.