Cork Flash Mob Official Video

17th Nov 2009

Cork Flash Mob Official Video

It was a bit more 'mob' than it was 'flash' but last Saturday's highly successful and entertaining flash mob event on Patrick Street is worthy of high praise.

At precisely 1.30pm the sounds of ELO's Mr. Blue Sky boomed around the packed street as hundreds of Corkonians participated in the quirky event which quickly became an instant hit on Youtube (albeit it's hard to find the official video on the website with some many unofficial wobbly camera phone versions!).

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More than anything the event went to show that Cork people are always up for some fun and silliness. The upbeat buzz around town after the event hasn't been seen since the end of the Celtic Tiger. With so many happy smiling faces filling the streets for hours afterwards, the thousands of spectators that crammed in to Pana to see the three and a half minute event were no doubt a welcome bonus for city centre businesses.

All the usual expensive marketing-by-numbers undertaken by the city's authorities to attract people into the city centre could do with some of the fresh ideas of the real movers and shakers in the local arts fraternity.

Pat Kiernan and company who put this together at virtually not cost are some of the many arts heads brimming with creative ideas - as well as being full of that ability to 'get it together' when it matters most.

With severe cutbacks likely to affect many of Cork's grant-dependent arts groups the answer may lie in partnering with unlikely bedfellows such as those city centre businesses who were 'mobbed' after the event on Saturday - the jingle of cash registers playing encore to Mr. Blue Sky.

It wasn't the first Saturday on the new Pana when town was reclaimed for fun. That fine January day in 2005 when Pana was shut down for a mini-music festival lives on in many young minds as the ideal Saturday afternoon in town and might be another avenue for culture-vultures and local businesses to consider resurrecting.

We can kick and scream about cutbacks but we must compliment that with positive action too.
Cork has long been locked in a fight for its fair share of the giant tax revenues we submit to the rest of Ireland.

Right now, like other counties, we're on the ropes but events like Saturday show that a bit of lateral thinking goes a long way to winning over hearts and minds. Boxing clever while the Dublin government tries to sort out its financial mess will reap rewards.