A handful of women chanting “Free your breasts, free your mind” inspired a chaotic scene on Robson Street today as surprised Sunday shoppers whipped out their iphones, tablets, iPads and cameras to get a shot of the spectacle.

The crowds of digital recorders swelled as Denise Belisle, a topless blond perched in a pink Betsy 1963 Buick Skylark, led a few topless women, and a couple of men wearing bras, along Robson from Denman to Robson Square.

As one man attempting to get a shot staggered, knocked over and broke the 40-per-cent-off sign in front of Guess jeans, Belisle yelled into a megaphone, “Watch where you’re going.”

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The march quickly gathered far more followers than participants, and by the time the group arrived at Robson Square, several hundred camera-wielding voyeurs were ready to get their close-ups of the bared breasts.

At least one participant had to hold the crowds back shouting “You’re too close,” while the women posed on the steps of the Art Gallery.

Belisle spoke briefly about separating nudity from sexuality and allowing women the same rights in society to go topless that men enjoy.

As topless model Heather Orr surveyed the crowd of gawkers, she said “This is why we need to do this. People see a topless woman and it becomes a spectacle."

“Go Topless Day” events occurred in 45 cities today. The event is an annual publicity stunt organized and promoted by the Raelians, a UFO cult founded by former French journalist Claude Vorlihan, author of “Extraterrestrials Took Me to Their Planet.” Vorlihan now calls himself Rael.

In 2002, Raelians achieved international notoriety when they claimed to have cloned a female Bishop and produced a child named Eve.

dryan@vancouversun.com