THE WORLD turned silly for a moment when the internet craze of flash mobbing hit Ely.

One minute shoppers were enjoying a leisurely Saturday afternoon, the next a bunch of people joined forces to Conga around the market place in a pre-planned moment of devil may care madness organised through the pages of Facebook.

Flash mobbing began in America in 2003 and at its peak saw 4,000 people take part in a silent disco at London Underground stations, a World Pillow Fight Day in 25 cities around the world and more recently T Mobile create an advert of people dancing at Liverpool Street station.

The Ely event may not have been as dramatic in numbers, but it certainly achieved its aims of bringing a bit of fun and lightness into what can seem a world of bad news and problems, according to organiser 40-year-old Stuart Baumber.

“It started as a bit of a laugh, an idea at the end of a drunken night,” said Stuart.

“We posted the event on Facebook and waited to see how many people came along.

“How refreshing to do something completely ridiculous for no reason other than just to have a bit of fun.”

Internet knowledge guru, Wikipedia, cites flash mobs as “a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place to perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time and then disperse, generally for the purpose of entertainment.”

A whistle blew, the dancers did the conga, then within minutes the fun ended and off they went into the crowds, leaving the people of Ely scratching their heads as to quite what had gone on.

Now, the gauntlet of fun has been thrown down for someone else to serve up a second event of sheer silliness in the city sometime soon. Watch this space…