Several students walking at the intersection of Franklin and Columbia on Saturday stopped in their tracks and stared at the sasquatch playing the saxophone on the street. The sasquatch was leading a group of people dressed up like elves, fairies and even a disco ball. Some students, decked out in gameday gear, joined in once they learned it was a flash mob.
Saturday’s flash mob was a part of Cryptids with a Cause, a joint mob and dance party hosted by the Town of Chapel Hill. Xavier Vallejo, the Town’s events coordinator, said that the event was inspired by Saxsquatch, a Chapel Hill native and a musician known for playing the saxophone in a Bigfoot costume. Saxsquatch — also known as Dean Mitchell — reached out to the Town about getting the performance opportunity.
Mitchell’s saxophone rendition of popular songs, including “Hotel Room Service” by Pitbull, as well as performances by aerialists and acrobats in Imagine Circus, a Raleigh-based entertainment company, kept the energy up.
“The purpose for this event is to bring the weird back to Chapel Hill, I think really lean into the craziness of what Chapel Hill is as a college town,” Vallejo said.
The Town combined these performances with a food drive for PORCH, a Carrboro-based organization that distributes food to local schools and over 700 families monthly.
Laura Malinchock, a PORCH board member and volunteer, said that the organization has never been a part of a flash mob but hopes the event and Saxsquatch raise awareness of PORCH for college students.
“I have sons who are in their 20s, and they all know about Saxsquatch, and I’d never heard of them,” Malinchock said.
PORCH is currently expanding into a choice pantry in downtown Carrboro, opening room for more student volunteer opportunities. Malinchock hopes this event will make people on campus be interested in helping.
This is the first flash mob-type event that Chapel Hill and Carrboro have put on, and they are waiting to see the reception before they decide on whether it will be an annual event. While this was a new event, the attendees were committed, dressing in bold, unique costumes.
They weren’t just there to see a celebrity-like figure in Saxsquatch — the costumed attendees were celebrities themselves in a way. Students stopped to take pictures with people they thought were wearing especially fun costumes.
Suzy Lawrence, who found out about the event either through Facebook or the Town posts, wore fairy wings and elf ears and was excited to see everyone else dressed up as well.
“All the different cryptids, which I’d never heard of that before, had to look up cryptids,” Lawrence said. “And it’s for a good cause, so I have my little bag of food over there.”
A cryptid is any creature that people claim exists even though no conclusive evidence has been found. While Lawrence took this definition literally, others interpreted the mob theme more ambiguously. For example, some people wore octopus hats.
The event might be an unconventional way to promote a food drive, but Malinchock felt positively about the potential impact.
“I think it’s an untapped market, because we’ve never been to a flash mob, so maybe a lot of the folks attending this won’t have heard about PORCH,” Malinchock said. “So, it’s a chance for us to tell them about PORCH, especially younger folk.”
Given how curious onlookers were about the event, cryptid flash mobs could become regular occurrences in Chapel Hill.