Melbourne has delivered its latest pop up event – in the form of jaffle parachutes. Created by Adam Grant and David McDonald, Jafflechutes involved the pre-purchase of individual jaffles by community supporters of the project, which were dropped off the top of a building in Flinders Lane on Friday night – ideally into the waiting arms of their owners.

The Jafflechutes Twitter feed and Facebook page are being updated daily since the event took place, demonstrating the emphasis on social media in the way in which the event’s producers are engaging with their community around this event. There is also a Flickr page where you can view photos taken of the event, and a video here too.

A simple idea that’s spontaneous and just a little – or maybe a lot – bizarre, and that requires participation from the public. A very similar idea to a flash mob.

The Twitter feed suggests that Friday night was just the first of more Jafflechute events to come. So I suppose we can say  this particular project is more of a pop-up event than a flash mob, flash mobs generally being more of a spontaneous, “one-off” occurrence. Pop-up events are a huge trend in Melbourne at the moment. They seem to have a particular focus on food, such as food trucks and food stalls (Gumbo Kitchen and Beat Box Kitchen to name a couple). It has infiltrated other areas, however, for example the pop-up drive in I went to recently.

The correlation between flash mobs and pop-up events is an interesting one. I see the latter as a variation on the former – even perhaps a result of it. The main reasons being that pop-up events are often spontaneous and release event information just hours beforehand; they rely on continuing participation and support from their community members in order to be successful, and do so predominantly using social media channels. Gumbo Kitchen is a good example, as it makes use of social media to maintain an ongoing relationship with its supporters and provide last minute updates and hints on where they might be located on a particular day.