A Flashmob Tribute to MJ

Liverpool Street Station, London

June 26, 2009

So, we all know (unless you’ve been living under a rock) that the legendary genius that is Michael Jackson, passed away last night, and tributes (as well as inevitable tasteless yet undeniably funny jokes) promptly dominated cyberspace.  This afternoon, a message about a ‘Moonwalker Flashmob‘ was posted on Twitter, and within a few hours, this had circulated around other social networking sites such as, yep, you guessed it – Facebook.

The message was that at 6pm, people should congregate at Liverpool Street Station for a flashmob to pay tribute to MJ.

I was finishing work at 6pm so I went along to find a crowd had already gathered.

Nothing much was happening though.  A few people started singing some tracks but that soon fizzled out.

Then the music started.

Most people were filming it on their phone, including me:

All the photographers wanted a snap of him..

..and people snapped me as I tried to snap them! I think everyone was filming each other in one way or another.  Very strange when you think about it.

After about half an hour, it was all over as the police ushered people away.  This is the first flashmob I have ever been to (they’re quite popular here and occur frequently).  It’s crazy how something that starts as a short 140 character message on Twitter, turns into hundreds (thousands according to some sources) of people meeting altogether in the same place at the same time, with one purpose – in this case, to celebrate the life of Michael Jackson.