Pillow Fight!

Click here for video coverage of the event.

Instead of Frisbee throwers and sunbathers, almost 2,000 shrieking, pillow-wielding students swarmed McKeldin Mall Friday afternoon in an attempt to bludgeon each other into the record books.

More than the 1,834 recorded people gathered on the Mall for what the university's Senior Council hoped would be the world's largest pillow fight. The attempt fell short of the Guinness Word record - a 3,706-strong melee held by the BBC in November 2008 - but few seemed to mind.

"I mean, it would have been nice to break the record, but it was tons of fun," junior Chinese major Yevgeniy Tyurmin said. "Whacking random people in the face - does it get much better?"

Topping the record was part of the motivation for the rumble, but philanthropy was the primary goal, organizer Shawn Malhotra said. Volunteers collected pillows after the event to donate to the homeless, and Dream Village, a company that produces current event-themed children's books, will receive about 90 percent of the leftover funds from the event's $6,000 purse, which came from donors such as Pepsi, Warner Bros. and the Student Government Association. About 10 percent of the leftover funds will go toward the senior class gift, said Malhotra, who serves as the co-executive chair of the Senior Council.

"If we broke the record, that was icing on the cake," he said. "But the idea was that this was a philanthropic event. That was the original mission, and, keeping that in mind, it was definitely a success."

Students were largely unaware of the event's philanthropic angle but were excited to be a part of a potential world record, they said. Aggression was also a motivating factor.

"It's a free therapy session - you can whack the hell out of people and go home happy," said senior primary education major Adam Watson. "You can finally get back at that poindexter from class that always knows the answers."

The event's mascot, a giant pillow with eyeholes, was a prime target. After he escaped from the bottom of a pile, speechless, he scribbled "stop the pillow genocide" on a piece of notebook paper. Senior biology major Shane Madella was party to the mayhem.

"There's nothing more fun than smacking the shit out of people," Madella said.

Malhotra said most of the funding was spent on lighting, a DJ and event insurance. IKEA also gave the Senior Council a bulk discount on the 500 pillows they purchased for the event.

There were about 40 security volunteers and two police officers monitoring the event, along with four paramedics. Malhotra said he was not aware of any serious injuries.

"There was one reporter who had a little cut on her eye and somebody with a bloody mouth, but other than that, we didn't have any issues," Malhotra said. "We were expecting chaos, but it's important to have organized chaos."

The event was advertised for 5 to 8 p.m., but the technical pillow fight was set to last only one minute at the end of the day - 60 seconds of unbridled pillow fury that, after an afternoon of unofficial skirmishes, was less climactic than expected.

Many students started arriving at about 6:30 p.m., and by 7, there were gangs of students crashing into each other in short-lived but intense bursts of pillow warfare that left the Mall strewn with the cotton innards of pillows that university staff members had to rake up the next day.

Freshman business major Sascha Maraj said the program was a great idea because it was accessible to everyone.

"It's the perfect event," Maraj said. "Everybody has a pillow."

Freshman letters and sciences major Benny Herskovitz said that college students need a release every once in while, especially as the semester draws to a close.

"It's a fun way to take your anger out. It's an easy way to interact with strangers - beating on them with pillows," Herskovitz said. "It's easier to attract people for a fun event than a worthwhile event."

Malhotra said Dream Village is producing a book set at this university, featuring a student organizing a giant pillow fight. A university student won a raffle at Friday's event to be cast as the main character of the book, which is slated to come out in September.

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