On Tuesday morning, Oxford woke up to discover hundreds of helium-filled balloons anonymously planted around the city centre, tied to bicycles, railings and signs.
On Tuesday morning, Oxford woke up to discover hundreds of helium-filled balloons anonymously planted around the city centre, tied to bicycles, railings and signs.
The red balloons were all attached to cards with an ‘x’ on one side and ‘260911’ on the other, and were found around the Radcliffe Camera , Merton College, Harris Manchester College, Christ Church College and along Broad Street.
Witnesses first spotted the balloons at around 6am on Tuesday. Within hours, tourists were photographing the phenomena, children were helping themselves to the balloons, some ‘setting them free’.
One student commented, “Still feeling a tad hungover and heading to the confines of the Rad Cam first thing to try and get some finals revision done, seeing balloons all around the square made my morning. I was slightly disappointed to find that the celebrations didn’t continue inside the library.”
Twitter users tried to decipher their origin, with user white_hart tweeting, “Maybe there are 99 and it’s a warning…”.
Another user commented, “It is the closing date for this job: Oxford University Lecturer in the Social Anthropology of Africa. A balloon campaign seems OTT though”.
Suggestions as to who is responsible for the balloons have included marketing stunts by Milkround, TEDxOxford and Love Oxford. None of these groups have yet claimed responsibility for the activity.
The printed number, 260911, is not valid as a local telephone number or University extension. As a date, it points to the Monday of -1st week in Michaelmas though though there does not yet appear to be any major events on that date.
The red balloons were all attached to cards with an ‘x’ on one side and ‘260911’ on the other, and were found around the Radcliffe Camera , Merton College, Harris Manchester College, Christ Church College and along Broad Street.
Witnesses first spotted the balloons at around 6am on Tuesday. Within hours, tourists were photographing the phenomena, children were helping themselves to the balloons, some ‘setting them free’.
One student commented, “Still feeling a tad hungover and heading to the confines of the Rad Cam first thing to try and get some finals revision done, seeing balloons all around the square made my morning. I was slightly disappointed to find that the celebrations didn’t continue inside the library.”
Twitter users tried to decipher their origin, with user white_hart tweeting, “Maybe there are 99 and it’s a warning…”.
Another user commented, “It is the closing date for this job: Oxford University Lecturer in the Social Anthropology of Africa. A balloon campaign seems OTT though”.
Suggestions as to who is responsible for the balloons have included marketing stunts by Milkround, TEDxOxford and Love Oxford. None of these groups have yet claimed responsibility for the activity.
The printed number, 260911, is not valid as a local telephone number or University extension. As a date, it points to the Monday of -1st week in Michaelmas though there does not yet appear to be any major events on that date.
