On September 12, San Francisco hosted what was perhaps the most honest group therapy session of the year: more than a hundred people came to the Pacific Ocean just to give it a good, hearty scream.
The event was called Guttural Scream at the Sea — roughly “A Guttural Scream Toward the Sea.” It was organized by local resident Danielle Egan, who decided that sometimes, instead of long conversations, a person needs the ocean and a chance to scream it out.
The program was organized almost professionally: first, a vocal cord warm-up, then a screaming competition, where volume, duration and style were judged, then practice howls, and finally one big collective scream toward the Pacific Ocean.
The organizers also listed the reasons to take part in advance: high rent, artificial intelligence, anger, and simply the fact that “screaming feels good”.
The star of the show was Olivia Guillemotto. Her scream reached 121,9 decibels — that is roughly the level of a very loud rock concert, and already the kind of volume at which ears start asking questions.
For her victory, Olivia received a completely logical prize — a small megaphone. Apparently, so that next time the people around her definitely wouldn’t miss a thing.
Second place went to Kiana van Houten: she lasted 6,78 seconds and produced 114,3 decibels.
But the climax was not the competition. At the end, more than a hundred people turned toward the ocean at the same time and screamed out everything they had accumulated all at once.
And after that, the participants were invited to calm down and eat fresh fruit.
So the ideal San Francisco anti-stress looks like this:
warmed up the voice → yelled at the Pacific Ocean → ate a fruit → went home.
And you know… compared with modern methods of fighting stress, this one is at least suspiciously understandable. 😄
