Feathers Flying into the Late Saturday Afternoon

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES —

Several hundred pillow enthusiasts took over the south end of Pershing Square Saturday afternoon for International Pillow Fight Day, part of what the event’s website calls the “Urban Playground Movement.”

The Downtown event went on for about an hour before being shut down by LAPD, who gave the order for dispersal. It’s hard to blame them: it really does seem like time to end when people are picking up feathers and stuffing them back into pillows for a third round.

Participants seemed to take great joy in the goings-on, as swings toward friends and strangers sent pillows bursting in air, leaving a shag carpet of feathers along the fountain.

The "How To" guide on the Pillow Fight Day website includes the urging to "leave no trace" and to plan for the cleanup that must occur after such an event. Those who organized the L.A. meetup must have missed that part of the instructions. It was good to see a handful of participants, none of whom had any part in the organization process, take it upon themselves to stick around rake feathers into plastic bags.

The idea of reclaiming urban space for public enjoyment is one that we'll gladly line up behind, but that reclamation doesn't include the right to trash our Downtown.

More photos posted up as a flickr set.