Monday, July 24, 2017

Lotus Live in the City - Largest Human Flower by the Asian Art Museum

Lotus Live - Lotus flower
The Asian Art Museum organized Lotus Live as part of its celebration of Flower Power and at the same time broke the Guinness World Records™ title for Largest Human flower.

I am so happy and honored to have been part of this title that now belongs to the Asian Art Museum. 

 It was a beautiful summer day. The sun was up, there was a cool breeze and the clock just hit thirty past twelve. My friend Dinah and her friend Ana were already at the Civic Center grounds for Lotus Live.  Lotus Live was an attempt by the Asian Art Museum to break  the Guinness World Records™ title for Largest Human Flower which also coincided with the museum's Flower Power exhibition.  The city of San Francisco is also celebrating its 50th anniversary of Flower Power.
Lotus Live - Civic Center

I was handed a green plastic poncho and this instruction sheet as soon as I got to the venue. The poncho was supposed to be worn as part of Team Green and the instruction sheet doubles as a voucher for free admission to the Asian Art Museum.
Lotus Live - Instruction 

Hundreds of ecstatic people were already checked in and gathering in front of the City Hall. I was afraid I was not going to find my friend Dinah and Ana because there were a lot of people. The crowd was a mix of different ages and different ethnicities which epitomizes San Francisco. I have not been part of something like this so I was also ecstatic for the record to be broken.
  Lotus Live - Begin formation 

Afterwards, we were instructed to go to the staging area that represents the color of our poncho, in my case, it was green.
  Lotus Live - Red and Green 

We went through a turnstile and we asked to not go beyond the flags. 
  Lotus Live - Gates 

Flags like this one were put to outline the shape of the Lotus Flower which can be seen from above. By this time, the sun was directly above us and I could see the plastic ponchos getting a bit of condensation from the participants wearing them who were already sweaty by then.
Lotus Live - Flag border

There was one time I got thirsty and a volunteer helped me get water. Thank you volunteers!
Lotus Live - Water station

And then a little after 1:00 o'clock, we started to do the countdown. We could see a drone high up probably taking pictures of us.
  Lotus Live - Waiting for countdown 

 In the end, over 2,400 people joined together and the officials announced the record was broken. I cannot believe I became a part of something like this!
  Lotus Live - Formation 

We were told there was a free poster of the event at the Asian Art Museum. We then made our way to the Asian Art Museum to get it.
  Lotus Live - OVer

It was such a fun, peaceful, and exciting event. Thank you Asian Art Museum and SF peeps! Another reason why I so love this city!

~rl

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