City Abbey venue for crowd freeze

The event was judged a success, pic from The Bath Chronicle

About 200 people froze like statues for five minutes in Bath at the weekend, in the latest internet-inspired craze.

In a seemingly spontaneous, but carefully planned stunt, participants froze near the Abbey for five minutes.

Organiser Mark Tate said: "The reactions of those not involved was quite staggered."

Similar events have taken place in New York and London, often co-ordinated over social networking sites and filmed for YouTube.

Conga march

In Bath, a balloon bursting was the signal for everyone involved to freeze on Saturday afternoon.

"People were in all sorts of poses, drinking a drink, for example. I was eating a banana. Everyone went to a lot of effort" said Mr Tate.

After five minutes, a balloon was released and the participants melted away, as though nothing had happened.

It follows on from the "flash mob" phenomenon when crowds burst into stunts like a conga march or a hokey-cokey in public places.

More freezes are planned, co-ordinated through Facebook, with Bristol the most likely venue, Mr Tate added.