The first Saturday of April marks the International Pillow Fight Day, a fun event held in dozens and dozens of cities all across the globe.

In New York City, the 2010 Pillow Fight took place in Union Square and little did I know what I was getting myself into when I decided to take my camera, 2 lenses and a dose of courage to brave the crowds. I arrived shortly before the official 3:00pm kick off and photographed some different participants. If you watch the video at the end of this post (or scroll to 02:33), you can see the Bee Dude (James) photographed in this post. This is his 4th time at the pillow fight, always in bee costume.

The rules are simple. Take off your glasses and only hit those around you who have a pillow in hand (basically, don’t whack the photographers). Costumes are encouraged and feather-pillows are discouraged (too messy a clean up).

The media was everywhere, meaning mostly on the edge of the fight (smart). I, on the other hand, was in the thick of it when the fight began (crazy).

I lasted about 4 minutes in the middle of the fight and then headed to Filene’s Basement to get a good bird’s eye view of the fight. I am not sure exactly how many people participated this year, but it seemed that there were hundreds, if not thousands taking part.

Happy with my far-away-from-the-crazy-pillow-fighting-crowd-and-my-blood-pressure-back-to-normal, I ventured back to get some better close up shots on the edge of the fight.

All in all, I was happy to have documented this event and might consider participating next year for a little bit and on the edges of the fight – not in the middle of it.

Heck, I might just don a crazy outfit too.

Here’s the a video that the Travel Channel did on the 2009 NYC Pillow Fight: