Last weekend I attended the Sydney #NoPants Subway Ride (also on MyFace).  For those who don’t know what it is, it was started by the group Improv Everywhere who specialise in flashmobs and as they say on their website “causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places”.  You can probably guess what the nopants subway ride is by its name.

Basically, a group of people get together, jump on a subway or train, and remove their pants.  Underwear is left on, obviously.  To not do so would be illegal in just about every country.  Most western nations though, as long as you’re wearing underpants that cover your private areas then it’s no different to people wearing their swimwear and hence it’s perfectly legal.

The latest one happened on Sunday the 9th of January.  We all met up at the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park in Sydney’s CBD.  From there Damien gave us our instructions which you can see in the video.  We were split in to four groups and made our way down to Central Station.

At Central, we all boarded the same train for the City Loop.   As soon as the train departed, the first group removed their pants and departed the train at Town Hall.  Those waiting on the platform were greeted with the usual fully clothed passengers departing, and a bunch of people spread throughout the carriages not wearing any pants.  Confusion and laughter reined.

As soon as the train left Town Hall, my group took off our pants and departed at Wynyard.  The third group at Circular Quay, and fourth at Museum.  We then all boarded the following train, giving amusement to the passengers already onboard seeing station after station of pantsless people boarding.  One lady was completely shocked, giving the stereotypical expressions of disbelief the entire time until she and her family departed the train at Circular Quay.  The train made its way back to Central where we changed platforms, had lots of bemused stares by all the other waiting passengers, and did another lap before heading to the pub for an afterparty.

There is no real reason for this.  Damien and the other organisers have had offers of sponsorship and other such things all of which they’ve turned down.  The entire point of the day is fun.  Nothing more, nothing less.  After the event I was running around getting peoples thoughts and trying to find out why they came.  What i was hoping for was to find some people with deep philosophical reasoning behind their attendance such as

“I’m a very spiritual person.  Most Atheists like to say we were born with no religion or spirituality and we are educated in to it and that is why they feel so strongly about their Atheism.  Well, we are also born with no pants and educated in to them, that is why I feel so strongly about nopants.”

or something like

“Many Muslims like to claim the Burka is a cultural thing.  To them, women wearing a Burka is akin to westerners wearing pants.  Well, I want to show that the Burka isn’t something they should feel the need to wear, and I’m showing that by not wearing pants.”

Unfortunately, it seems I was the only one holding such deep feelings about nopants.  Everybody else, they had just had the Facebook or weebly page pointed out to them, laughed, and thought it was so stupid and amusing they couldn’t NOT go.

After a long sunny day with no pants and no suncream, a very sunburnt me (my face and arms) headed home.  I’m very much looking forward to attending #NPSR next year.  And don’t forget to vote for me in the Shorty Awards for #NoPants.

(Note: Both videos are mine, all pictures are not – they were taken from the Sydney #Nopants website).