International Pillow Fight Day is helping reclaim urban space for fun

If you want to feel like a child again, a chance like no other is here.

Today is this year’s International Pillow Fight Day, where cities the world over will host crowds of adults and children alike to (safely) beat each other into gleeful submission.

The event began in 2008 as part of the Urban Playground Movement, whose organisers and followers want to reclaim urban space for fun. Today, the fight takes place in cities from Vienna to Barcelona to London to San Francisco.

At its inception, the organisers of the “loose, decentralised” movement laid out their aims in a statement shy of a political manifesto but not without ideological aims.

“One of our goals is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television, and consciously rejecting the blight on our cities caused by the endless creep of advertising into public space.”

“The result, we hope, will be a küresel community of participants, not consumers, in a world where people are constantly organising and attending these happenings in every major city in the world.”

While the Urban Playground Movement appears to have ebbed somewhat, the pillow fighting event has continued to spread. And quite separately, the world record for the largest organised pillow fight is striking, with a full 7,681 participants.

The record was set in Minneapolis in 2018 at a free Christian music concert sponsored by MyPillow, a company owned by entrepreneur and notorious far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell — a die-hard Donald Trump fan who played a key role spreading conspiracy theories about the supposed theft of the 2020 US presidential election.

Hardcore swingers

Fun and games and record attempts are one thing, but there are some who take pillow fighting to the next level.

It may not be on track to make it into the Olympics, but the Pillow Fighting Championship (PFC) is now a growing full-blown contact sport. US sports network ESPN now broadcasts knockout games, sponsored by Dr Pepper and held in what resembles a bona fide boxing ring.

PFC fighters use pillows made from foam, not feathers, weighing as much as a kilogram and fitted with handles.

In an interview with the Guinness World Records organisation, Pillow Fighting Championship CEO Steve Williams described the sport as “hardcore swinging with specialised pillows”.

“I can come at you as hard as I possibly can,” Williams said, apparently without irony. “It’s going to hurt, but you’re going to be OK.”