NYC’s Annual Pillow fight is a crazy and wacky event, drawing thousands of people together! The gigantic Pillow fight occurs annually in Washington Square Park, located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City.
Apart from the General Pillow Fights rules explained further down there are three main ones you need to know for the Annual Pillow Fight In New York City.
- Don’t Hit to Hard
- Try not to smash peoples, phones or cameras who are recording.
- Down Pillows are generally frowned upon as they can leave a mess.
Pillow Fight Costumes
Some enthusiastic pillow fighters who attend NYC’s gigantic Pillow Brawl, dress up in Fun and Wacky Costumes from Superheroes to cartoon Characters.
Apart from being a fun community event, it is also a good hearted charity occasion where many of the pillows are donated to homeless shelters in New York.
Should you bring your own pillow?
If you don’t wan’t to get your own pillow destroyed or damaged. Head down to “Mattress Firms Noho Location, where they will give you a durable fighting pillow in exchange for a $5 donation to their Foster Kids Program.
Etiquette
It’s really good idea to help clean up after the event, as if you love San Francisco it’s best not to trash it! Any mess left over, has to be cleaned up by the San Francisco Department of Public Works, “Public works will have a crew to clean the feathery mess after the fight,” DPW spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said. It is estimated this costs the tax payer is around $5000.
Who organizes the Annual Pillow Fights?
A organisation called New Mind Space, ran by Kevin Bracken and Lori Kufner organizes the majority of pillow fighting events across many cities all over the world. They also organise other FREE flash Mob Style events from Bubble Battle NYC, where everyone uses bubble guns.
To large Public Capture the Flag competition and even a gigantic Mistletoe Kiss, where many couples were brought together for the Worlds Largest Kiss under the Mistletoe in 2010. For each kissing couple, virgin the sponsor, donated $5 to a charity.
How do I attend an Annual Pillow Fight?
New Mind Spaces, organises Pillow Fight events across many cities all over the world. So is your best bet if your wan’t to attend a large pillow fight! For a list of all their up and coming pillow fight events, see the following link on Facebook.
The Annual Pillow Fight Events include:
- Bilbao, Spain
- Chicago, IL
- Geleen, Netherlands
- Hull, UK
- London, U.K
- Key West, FL
- New York, NY
- Oulu, Finland
- Panamá, Panamá
- Scheveningen (Beach), The Netherlands
- Seattle, WA
- Stockton, CA
- Vancouver, BC
- Valencia, Spain
- Vienna, Austria
- Washington, DC
Pillow Fight Rules
The rules for engaging in a pillow fight tend to be unwritten and improvised for the most part. However, after last year annual pillow fight in NYC I managed to write down some important ones after speaking to the many competitors.
Pillow Fight Rules include:
- Ensure Both Competitors have sufficient pillows to grab.
- No Holding/Grabbing other people pillows, to then hit them.
- No Sofa Cushions, with Zips or Buttons.
- No Smothering
- No running to far away, best to keep it within an imaginary circle for the most action.
- Pillows must be standardised and not altered in any way, strengthened, things put inside.
- The first person who falls, to the grab, gives up or pillow explodes loses.
- Competitors cannot hoard peoples, leaving none for other competitors.
- Be Careful not to smash each other pillow warriors phones, who are recording, by hitting too hard at annual pillow fights.
- Bring a Garbage Bag or Broom along with you to help with the clean up after, for annual events.
- Remove Glasses Before hand.
- No Hitting in the Genitals.
- Good Humor should be kept throughout, Don’t take it too serious.