RonTopofIt just alerted me to this situation at the Roseville Galleria:
Evacuations were ordered at the Westfield Galleria at Roseville Monday night because a “flash mob” by the Sacramento Choral Society brought an overcrowding concern.
The Galleria has had some scary moments recently so I don’t want to make light of that. But a “flash mob by a chorale society” has me thinking Onion article right off the bat. I’m so glad KCRA was on the scene to capture 54 seconds of video of people standing and walking and a voice on the overhead that you can’t hear.
On the other hand, was this really a “flash mob” at all? I’m open to the fact that it can still be a flash mob if it is a group of people only singing and not a group of people doing the dance from “Teenwolf,” but as far as I can tell it was just open to SCSO members so there was really no mob. Don’t mean to split hairs here.
UPDATE: The Bee’s Ed Fletcher is picking up what I am laying down.
The Sac Rag 
Even the many you-tube “flash mob Messiahs” were done by a relatively low number of participants who were also relatively clandestine in their preparation.
This Custer-fluck was heavily promoted by the Sacramento Choral Society, and the too-many participants told lots of friends and family “Come hear us sing the Hallelujah Chorus and surprise everyone” ad infinitum.
When people are telling the news cameras “We came here to watch the flash mob, but were turned away”, the whole point is missed, if you ask me.
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Then this story about a wall collapsing at Arden Fair.
A BJ’s? Great, just what Sacramento needs.
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Then this article about how the event was advertised to the public.
It won’t be long before it will be illegal to have a flash mob without a permit. Which will be fun to enforce. How many people does it take to become a mob?
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I love BJ’s!
* Thanks for the setup, RonTopofit
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