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Current mood:  touched Category: Life
After returning from London in 2004, Juan Mann felt like a tourist when he arrived home. With no one to welcome him at Sydney airport, and nothing but a bag full of clothes, Juan Mann unwittingly birthed a ‘Free Hugs” movement in 2004.
After a random hug from a stranger. “...I went out to a party one night and a compleley random person came up to me and gave me a hug. I felt like a king!” Mann carried the now iconic "FREE HUGS" sign on to the streets. However on his first attempt in Sydney's busy Pitt Street Mall, he had to wait fifteen minutes before an elderly lady came up to him and gave him what was to be the first of millions of hugs.
In October 2004 police told him and his growing band of huggers they must stop, as Mann had not obtained public liability insurance worth $25 million for his actions. Mann and friendly huggers used a petition to convince authorities that his campaign should be allowed to continue without the insurance. After his petition reached 10,000 signatures, he free hug campaign was given the official thumbs up.
Mann and lead singer for the Sick Puppies, Shimon Moore recorded video footage of Mann in action, a video that wasn’t to see the light of day until after the death of his grand mother in 2006.
Moore made the music video using the footage he had shot in 2004, and sent it to Mann as a gift, stating in an interview that, "I sent it to him on a disc as a present and I wrote down 'This is who you are'."
As a result of the enormous popularity of the YouTube video (over forty two million viewings) Mann was invited to appear on teh Oprah Winfrey Show, where he made an appearance outside her studio, offering free hugs to her audience as they waited for taping to begin.
The Sick Puppies performed ‘All the Same” live while Mann gave hugs to crowd members, and to this day Mann continues his campaign by appearing in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall most Thursday afternoons.
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10:21 AM
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