The annual Valentine's Day flashmob pillow fight, which here in Neverland SF has a Facebook event page and a FuncheapSF listing but no official organizer, went down on Saturday on schedule at Justin Herman Plaza. Fun was had by most, and there was once again a huge mess left behind, though ABC7 has reports of one person knocked unconscious when he slipped on feathers.

SFist has had its eye on the The Great San Francisco Pillow Fight since 2008, noting the fateful battle of 2010 that left the Department of Public Works demanding $35,000 in cleanup fees. Five years later, it looks like a repeat of that result, despite Funcheap's advice for the event:


  • Bring a mask or bandanna to cover your mouth - it’s easy to choke on flying feathers.
  • Bring a synthetic pillow (not one with feathers). Trust us.. it’s much more enjoyable this way.
  • Bring a garbage bag - have fun and then help clean up afterward - the price of having fun is keeping your city clean and makes it much less likely for the fuzz to shut this thing down.
  • Build up your arm strength - your arms will be sore after this… trust us.
  • It’s worth repeating… HELP CLEAN UP AFTERWARD - we can’t stress this enough so that we can continue having fun anarchy like this.

Ignoring those nags, plenty of feather pillows and few trash bags were in play. This was the aftermath. According to ABC7, the city estimates a cleanup cost of around $5,000 annually for the event.

pillowfightaftermath.jpg

The Department of Public Works will be issuing time-outs and groundings accordingly.

All SFist pillow fight coverage.

via Imgur