Impromptu 'kitchen party' at Pearson airport goes viral

A lengthy wait in an airport lounge couldn’t dampen the spirits of a group of Newfoundlanders who found themselves waiting at Pearson International Airport Monday.

Michelle Sacrey Philpott was waiting at Pearson for her flight back home to Newfoundland and Labrador when an impromptu “kitchen party” – a traditional Atlantic Canadian social gathering – broke out in the lounge. Several people waiting for their flight pulled out instruments and started performing folk songs while others danced along to the music, sang and clapped.

The travel agent, returning from a business trip to Cancun, whipped out her phone and shared some of the merry-making in several videos posted to Facebook.

The scenes of singing, dancing and knee-clapping quickly went viral, with thousands of likes and shares, as well as many comments praising the group for making the best of a situation that would have left many others disgruntled.

“A Business Trip back from Cancun, a missed connection with an overnight in Toronto and a long day waiting around the airport for our flight home to NL turned into one of the best airport experiences of my life!” Sacrey Philpott wrote in another Facebook post the next day.

She added that the impromptu celebration is an example of why she’s “proud to be a Newfoundlander.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the videos had been viewed collectively more than 800,000 times.