Train Station Silent Dance

Last night I was part of a “flash mob” style silent dance at Liverpool St. train station, in which thousands of people danced to their own ipods/mp3 players at exactly 7pm.  This was organized through a group on Facebook that had over 13,000 members.  According to the police, 12,000 people took part in the dance, but think that is a little bit of an overestimate.

This was absolutely insane, and tons of fun.  We arrived about 20 minutes early, and there was a bit of a crowd in the open space below the departures board.  There were a few police officers watching from the balconies, and many people had already staked out their observation points from the balconies.  I walked upstairs briefly, and by the time we went back, a large crowd had gathered.  Soon after, the police stopped letting people down the stairs.  We were in the middle of it all, just to the left of the blue sign in the picture above.

After a ten second countdown, the dancing started at 7:00 pm.  It wasn’t exactly silent, as everyone was screaming.  I could hardly even hear my music, but that was ok; I knew what was playing on my “Liverpool St. Station silent dance” playlist.  It was absolutely packed, with hardly enough room to do much dancing.  Despite this, we were all having a blast.  Just behind us were two middle aged guys who were on their way home, but decided to stick around for the excitement.  Smiling and carefree, one remarked that he had already missed his train.

After the planned fifteen minutes, we made our way home.  Unfortunately, the tube station that we came on was closed, as was the entire train station.  In the left of the picture there is a blurry Underground sign.  The station is literally just beyond that sign, but the gates to the station that are just out of the picture were completely closed.  As a result, we wandered through town for a bit before we came upon an open tube station.  We left by about 20 after, but apparently many decided to continue to dance.  As a result, the police eventually had to move through the crowd to force people out.  The police also showed up outside of the station on horses.  I would have been really impressed if the horses rode the escalators down to the station.

click here for a link to an article about the event

For those who are interested here is the playlist that I listened to:

Stronger-Kanye West
Estelle (feat. Kanye West) vs The Ting Tings – Shut Up, American Boy-The Hood Internet
Sandstorm-Da Rude
Electric Feel-MGMT