No Pants 2010 Buenos Aires
If you participated in one of the 44 regional No Pants Subway Rides today in 16 countries across the world, leave us an agent report in the comments below letting us know how it went. Post links to any photos and videos from your town’s event as well. Let us know how many people participated and what the temperature was.
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Check out the complete history of The No Pants! Subway Ride with videos of past years
I think the -7° “feels like” temperature is the best way to participate in a No-Pants event such as this. In hot summer weather, not wearing pants doesn’t seem too big of a deal… in the winter, you get a lot more looks.
This was my first time participating in the No Pants ride. I’ve been wanting to for years, but haven’t been able to (even in Chicago) due to being in the middle-of-nowhere Minnesota over Christmas breaks.
Some of my memories of today’s Chicago Event:
My first thought, while approaching the meeting point, was “if there are only like 10 people there, I may just keep walking by…” And at first I was worried I’d have to, until I noticed about 100 people huddling behind a building. About 150 people showed up in-all.
It was well-organized; the city police knew about the event, so that helped everything go off without any hitches. I’m pretty sure it will be appearing on most of the local news stations this evening. (Look for me in a few shots… I’m very tall! ;)
I loved seeing riders who had their faces shoved in books – couldn’t decide if they were trying to not look, or were completely unaware of the pantless fiasco.
Rather than getting off of my car and waiting for the next train, at my designated stop I hopped on the car in front of mine. This was nice because everyone else on that car who was going pantless had already left, and many people asked me what was with the underwear today. I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about and that I had just been very warm on the other car.
Other than that, we were able to peer-pressure a businessman into removing his pants. Two other memories to take back were having an entire train singing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the way to our party-restaurant afterwards and seeing a restaurant (with full glass side-windows) filled with pantless people!
Mission definitely accomplished here.
Seattle Agent here …
We rode the rail to the airport – and then roamed around there. If anyone asked, we said its to be hassled less during security screening.
A fun part was putting our pants on the baggage claim carousal and “getting the pants back”.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15011&id=100000014881275&l=b4ae41be64
Reporting from Washington D.C.
Was a cold day, but mostly went off without a hitch! Several hundred agents and lots of great reactions, twice I was asked if there was an “underwear convention”…mostly just fun meeting new people and having some laughs. My favorite comment came from a kid asking if this was a “school trip”?? I’m not sure what sort of schools he’s familiar with, but I’ve never seen one with pants-free outings before! Didn’t stay for the afterparty, but if the event itself is any indication, I bet it was a smashing good time!
Reporting from Mexico City
It was the first time, There were maybe 80 of us, it was very warm about 40°F.
people from cities in the US like Oregon who were here, came and it was fun, we had no trouble with the police, or any other situation, it was a little unorganized, but it was great.
A funny thing was, that we had big media “coverage” a lot of photographers, this was a little awkward.
some pictures, after the ride.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148129&id=624611548&ref=mf
We had about 140 participants, including several people over 40, and a LOT of media. Not much happens in Portugal, so anything like this is nothing less than a media event.
We traveled downtown, did the mission and got some nice reactions. Then the media left – along with some agents – but the rest (still about 100) wouldn’t budge. So we ended up doing it again, this time uptown and with no flashes. It was a blast – we got a lot more funny, subtle reactions.
Most people here seem to think we’re shooting a soap opera, or doing publicity for “something”. (If no one ends up knowing what it is, it must be pretty poor publicity.)
Last year a woman thought we were advertising the Subway heating system. We were supposed to be showing everyone that if we can travel pants-less and not be cold, it must be good (today we had about 5ºC, along with rain).
This year we had our very own Gay Couple, like IE had on their first No Pants 9 years ago! But they were friendly, albeit loudly incredulous.
It was a lot of fun, but I long for more thought out missions without press.
This event was amazing, tons of people and lots of fun, we saw so many surprised faces. It was absolutely priceless, and ill be going every year for now on!
Reporting from Washington, DC.
This was my first no-pants ride. I missed 2009 NPSR. DC was the place to be. Several hundred people (200? 300?) joined in the fun. It was awesome.
I was accosted twice with requests to explain what was going on. Both inquirers were left with no straight answer and probably the feeling that a conspiracy was on. Even some frustration at so many people doing something and not provide an explanation. Does fun need explaining?
Smiling was the key. It was hard not to laugh, though, as people wree tugging the sleeve of their significant other to discreetly point at all the pantless people.
Bizarely, it was fairly comfortable to be pantless. The occasional breeze due to oncoming trains was sometimes shrinkingly surprising, but otherwise OK.
The boundaries for the DC NPSR were fairly tight and made kind of a circuit. Astonishingly for WMATA, trains were very close in correspondence and I got to go on about 10 different trains/cars in an hour. Best thing is… we were everywhere!
Best stop? Smithsonian at 4pm, when lots of people, young, old, came out of the museums and headed to pack the trains… awesome reactions from horror to photo inquiry.
See yall next year, pantless people!
Post pictures if you have any!
I had a great time!
My contribution to the memory of the D.C. group is this short vid. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/athicks/4264302823/
The San Francisco one was big and my first one! There were hundreds. I took the BART train in from the North to SF. The train coming from the south which contained hundreds of participants had not arrived yet. Getting off the train with a handful of others also pantsless, we found two network cameramen, some other videographers and several photographers.
I was interviewed and even got a call by a friend that she saw me on the news and in the pic at the top of the story – http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=7210954
Once all participants had arrived instead of taking more transit, we walked (a line of people longer than I could see the end of) to Union Square where we got lots of photos taken. We then went into the Levis store where some of us went to the PANTS 50% Off table. We stayed in Union Square for about an hour, (even cheering for some to take their pants off and some did!) and then went on our way. The SF police were great and didn’t stop us or kick us out of anywhere. I had a great time and got a kick out of making the tourists and locals smile and take photos. – Hamster
I’m currently uploading some of the photos I took today. They’re at http://www.flickr.com/photos/schaffner
I got on the BART train at San Bruno and followed all the way to the Twin Peaks bar. There were a huge number of participants! Everyone was having fun. I only heard about a few negative things. I heard that one family on the BART train was disgusted and got off to take the next one. Also, since every one was boarding the center cars it was taking a long time to board. The train operator did not know what was going on, and she was getting yelled at by BART central control for taking too long at the station stops. Maybe next year everyone should spread out throughout the whole train.
All in all, it was great!
Justine Bateman participated in LA. Cool!
http://tanya77.tumblr.com/post/328017341/the-nopantssubwayride-10-was-a-blast-i-couldnt
Two first-hand (or leg?) reports from the SEATTLE event here, including pics:
http://www.b-townblog.com/2010/01/10/our-1st-report-from-sundays-no-pants-link-light-rail-ride-wpics/
http://www.b-townblog.com/2010/01/10/report-2-from-sundays-no-pants-light-rail-ride-wmore-pics/
VIDEO COMING MONDAY!
It went awesome! thanks to all who participated! Here’s a vid I shot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7-s9BtxDzQ
Awesome flashmob … I love flashmob “No Pants Subway Ride 2009? – Barcelona … see more at http://twurl.nl/quaglj :) and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137635&id=190531734546
Hi from SPAIN !!! :)
Tokyo Japan, January 10. I got on the train at an in-between station, and found myself immediately surrounded by cops. They insisted on detaining me and taking my picture. Of course there is no law against it. They said “it might be okay in your country, but in Japan this goes against tradition. In Japan people have to wear pants.” Which is of course not true. There’s a tradition of people walking around in their long summer underwear (which is what I was wearing under my suit and tie), granted it’s usually in their own neighborhoods. And the mini-skirted high-school girls were showing more leg than me.
But the cops were really on the ball here. Must have been a tip off, or it’s their “terrorism alert” quick reactiveness. (It’s a good lesson for real would-be terrorists: create a massive distraction.) The younger cop who talked with me was much more in tune with the gravity of the situation: that it wasn’t something to get so worked up over.
If you’re reading this, honorable hard-working Tokyo police officers, please forgive us our small harmless prank. It was for everyone’s enjoyment, a public service if you will, with the message: lighten up.
I commented on a Japanese bbs/forum thingy (alfalfalfa or something) that was linked to one of the news articles on this that I linked to below & someone there said “Sorry- I saw the facebook post and reported it”, apparently “in order to protect the public order” from this terrible travesty. And then went on to say I should be grateful I wasn’t arrested, and reflect on how I wasted tax money. *groan* So there ya go. I guess every country has its party poopers.
Video of Chicago’s No Pants Subway Ride – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peeOLmPfdq4
Rode in DC, which went very well–the numbers were just right so there were a good-sized group of pants-free people on each train, but not so many as to overwhelm normal riders. Best reaction of the day, on seeing a group of pantsless riders: “Were they robbed”?
Hey guys! Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St Paul) reporting in!
Minnesota appears to have been the coldest AGAIN! We were the coldest No Pants ride in 2009, and this year is no exception.
No Pants Day 2010 started out cold and crisp. With a forecast high of 12F (That’s -11C for you guys in other countries) and the sun shining, we were expecting a beautiful, if frigid day.
I arrived at the Mall of America Transit Station. As I stepped out of the Elevators at 1:30, I looked around, and saw several people milling around. I said loudly, as if talking to my friend “I wonder who’s here for our event.” Several people waved all of a sudden, and started gathering around.
We noticed a high amount of Mall Security and Transit Officers, including a small group outside who had a megaphone.
After speaking with Andy and Scott, we figured they were there for us. So I went over and spoke with the officer with the megaphone.
First: I would like to say the experience with the officers was very refreshing. In a day and age where suspicion and distrust are rampant, the officers were all very professional and courteous.
In speaking with him, he simply said “We just want to make sure there aren’t any issues. The Mall is a family environment, and we want to keep it that way and not cause any problems.”
I told him “I understand. We have a very specific set of rules to prevent any issues, and if someone refuses to follow them, they will be removed from the group.”
The supervisor came over, and we talked about the same things, and I reassured him that we were on top of the situation.
There was a media crew there, which I thought might have been a local station there to cover the event. It turns out it was TLC filming another episode of Mall Cops: Mall of America.
After the brief conversation with security, we gathered around and waited for the train to arrive.
The plan was to get on the train and after two or three stops, depants.
Two of the Transit officers rode with us, and were the spitting image of professionalism. They laughed and enjoyed the scenery of almost 60 people droppings pants (a few of them quite attractive too. ;)).
It was a very brisk day, and the ride lasted about 30 minutes or so from the Mall of America to Target Field in Downtown Minneapolis.
Once we hit the last stop, the train was removed from service and we were forced to disembark. Being in downtown with the sun hiding behind buildings on a cold day is bad enough. Doing so without pants in the wind is even worse! With the wind chill, it was close to 0F (-18C). Already 32 degrees below freezing.
We are Minnesotans though, so we just gathered close for our “No Pants!” cheer and a group photo.
On the way back, the entire “I forgot my pants” premise was dropped, and we just had a good time. Many people who boarded the train asked if they were on the wrong train. We’d say “Well, where do you need to go?”.
We got lots of laughs from people, funny looks, but it was status quo.
We did have an issue where an older man started raving about homosexuality when we all depantsed. He left the train in a hurry.
TLC came up after the event and interviewed several people that participated, and even pulled me aside for a 10 minute interview as the “leader” of Plan B MN.
Plan B will be going NATIONAL! Yay!
Due to a meeting we had to be at that afternoon, my friend and I were only able to participate as far as the Franklin Avenue station. Our best reaction happened when we got off the train there, still pants-less. A guy waiting on the platform asked what was going on. Were we participating in some kind of Polar Bear Swim? I said well, it was just *hot* in there (as noted by Chris, it was about 12F). He laughed a little but seemed fairly content with that explanation. As we boarded the train going back to where we had left the car, he shouted at us, “I hope it won’t be hot too hot for you to keep your pants on this time!”
The main Dallas, TX ride had around 80 people, divided into multiple groups on two different lines.
After the initial meeting to get everyone organized, a transit cop told us that removing our pants could lead to arrest or a fine, however no one was charged with any offenses, and the day was a complete success!
Brian and Chris, the brains behind the Dallas ride had worked with a local bar to setup celebratory part afterward, and the pantless fun continued at The Amsterdam Bar in Exposition Park.
The Dallas Morning News sent along a reporter and a photojournalist, and the story, photos and a video are front page on their web site this morning, as well as the Metro section of the print edition:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011110dnmetnopants.3c9c19d.html
Additional photos are at my website: http://nakedlens.org.
Latest news from Stockholm.
Even without a big media crowd following the 8 of us we ended up in the Metro newspaper this morning
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3255718&id=517792080&op=1&view=all&subj=269251564257&aid=-1&oid=269251564257
I also got interviewed a couple of hours ago on the Swedish radio.
Promising that we will be far more people on the subway in Stockholm next year.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=269251564257#/video/video.php?v=253956347080&oid=269251564257
Pictures from Chicago: http://www.nbcchicago.com/enjoy-this/Pantsless-CTA-Ride-improv-everywhere-el-81134977.html