Kansas City International Pillow Fight Day - Kansas City, MO

Whenever I had pillow fights as a kid, my mother would always say, "It's always funny until someone gets hurt." And inevitably someone got hurt. Someone fell off the bed, someone hit her head on the nightstand, someone got hit in the eye. (Actually, I shouldn't limit this to pillow fights. A recent marshmallow fight with friends was fun until someone got hit in the eye. Why is it always the eye?) But we kept having pillow fights. There is something about the childish fun of a pillow fight that makes us forget hitting our heads or getting in trouble because you hit your sister way too hard.

It's just fun. Pure and simple.

The Urban Playground Movement brought back the flurry of feathers and fun with International Pillow Fight Day on April 2, 2011. The Urban Playground Movement is trying to make these fun events part of popular culture. They want to replace passive, consumption experiences (like watching television) with fun events that bring people together in their community. I have to admit, a community-wide pillow fight does seem like a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than catching up on my DVR. (I can do that Sunday night, anyway).

All around the world, people took up their fluffy pillows and started beating the crap out of each other. I, of course, was determined to participate. KC Pillow Fight planned the Kansas City Pillow Fight to take place at the JC Nichols Fountain in Kansas City. This was not the first event. Last year, 80 to 100 people people participated.

There are rules, of course. This isn't the lawless pillow fighting of your youth. The rules are:

1. Soft pillows only!

2. Swing lightly

3. Do not swing at people without pillows or with cameras.

4. Remove glasses beforehand! (This is why someone always gets hit in the eye!)
5. Wait until the signal to begin. The signal is when someone yells, "Pillow fight!"
6. Creativity, fun pillows and costumes are encouraged

It was a beautiful day for a pillow fight - sunny and 75 degrees. A few people came in pajamas with decorated pillows, one guy even came in a panda costume, which prompted cries of "Get the panda!" when the fighting started. A little after 3pm, we heard the cry and started swinging. It was panda-monium (pun absolutely intended)! Everyone was laughing and having a great time, no one hit each other very hard, it was all in good fun. Some people even brought their children, so I let a six-year-old girl take me down. Her mother told me she had been talking the whole drive there about hitting someone until they fell down, so apparently it made her day when I collapsed on the ground and announced my defeat. It was so much fun, I don't understand why it is only once a year. This seriously needs to be a monthly event, at least in the summer.

And by the way, no one got hit in the eye.

Total Time Traveled: 2.5 hours

Total Distance Traveled: 80 miles

Soundtrack: Tegan and Sara "Sainthood"