Students browsing booths at the Arts and Cultural Opportunities Fair last week looked on in surprise as 70 students began dancing and Gator-chomping in unison.
The students were performing a choreographed dance to Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle," laughing and jumping about on the Reitz Union Colonnade.
Josh Sallerson, a 22-year-old dance senior, said the dancers were trying to be as inconspicuous as possible before the performance, talking with people at the fair and casually looking at the booths.
"We burst into dance, and I had no clue what to expect," Sallerson said. "Then you see people start to accumulate and pull out their cameras and video recorders, and you realize you're part of something that's unexpected and big."
As of Monday evening, the YouTube video of the dancers had more than 2,700 hits.
The flash mob, organized by the School of Theater and Dance, is just one of two that have taken place on campus in the past few weeks.
Flash mobs occur whenever any large group of people performs the same action.
Flash mobs aren't just becoming common at UF. According to The New York Times, they have been popping up across college campuses nationwide. They have been used to welcome new students during orientation and to celebrate upcoming programs and anniversaries.
Flash mobs have become more popular recently because they are a new way to raise awareness about causes, said Conroe Brooks, the co-founder of Flash Mob America.
"People get addicted to them," said Brooks, whose group can be hired to help organize flash mobs.
The two other recent flash mobs at UF were held to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and to kick off National Arts and Humanities Month.
Jeffrey Kaplan, program director at UF Hillel, organized the three-day flash mob for Rosh Hashanah. About 40 people gathered to blow the shofar, a large, traditional horn used to signal the new year. Students showed up, blew their shofars, screamed "Happy New Year!" and left.
"The first day I got there 20 minutes early and waited for people I recognized," Kaplan said. "At 12:38, people started showing up."
Brooks said YouTube has helped spur the growth of flash mobs because the website provides people with an easy way to get their videos seen.
"College kids want to do crazy stuff," Brooks said, "so why not do a flash mob?"
