On the weekend of July 4, 2026, the City of Raleigh found it was not immune from a new type of “flash mob” on steroids — so-called “teen street takeovers.”
According to Rebecca Walker of the National Communication Association, “Flash mobs started in the United States in the summer of 2003. A magazine editor named Bill Wasik organized the very first ones in Manhattan, New York City. Hundreds of strangers used chain emails to meet up at stores like Macy’s, do a quick, silly thing, and run away fast.”
The first flash mob of approximately 100 people descended upon a Macy’s department store in New York City just to look at an expensive rug and then left. In the late 2000s, the “flash mobs” grew to where a large group of people would show up and perform a choreographed dance routine, and leave. The year 2010 and beyond, commercials were being made by big companies and sports teams would use them to pump up the crowd in the stands…