The annual Taste of DC festival’s family zone will have an unusual backdrop this weekend — protesters staked out at Pennsylvania Avenue’s Freedom Plaza as part of a massive anti-capitalism demonstration. Just yards from the Jumbo Bounce and the Cupcake Walk will be a “shanty town” of sorts with protesters using Freedom Plaza between 13th and 14th streets NW as a home base for daily demonstrations throughout the city, according to Stop the Machine event organizer Kevin Zeese.
Zeese said the group was awarded a permit two weeks ago by the National Park Service, which owns the plaza. The demonstration starts Thursday and runs through Sunday night.
Taste of DC’s owner Steuart Martens said his event, which is on the street and under the city’s jurisdiction, obtained its permit from the District in July.
“I don’t think [the park service] ever would have scheduled that event had they known they we were going to be there,” Martens said. “They were there in the meetings but it just wasn’t on their radar because they didn’t have to issue [our] permit.”
Toni Braxton, a National Park Service spokeswoman, said the agency’s permit office did notify the city about the Stop the Machine event, but “they can’t deny them the permit because it’s a First Amendment right.”
The park service met with Stop the Machine representatives before issuing the permit to ensure the two events could coexist, said Millicent West, director of the D.C. Homeland Security & Emergency Management Agency.
But the size of the crowds could raise tensions. Martens said he expects half a million visitors throughout the three-day Taste of DC, which begins Saturday. Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Lamar Greene said Thursday’s Stop the Machine kickoff could attract 2,000 people, “but you never know until the day of.”
Zeese’s estimate, based on online registrations, is for more than 7,000 protesters.
Greene said city police are working with the National Park Police to ensure the protesters “have a safe environment” but do not become disruptive.
Stop the Machine is separate from Occupy DC, whose participants began gathering last weekend in McPherson Square. That group is one of the many Occupy Wall Street spinoffs sprouting up across the country to protest corporate greed. That group says it plans to occupy the city’s financial district indefinitely.
Zeese said the two groups in D.C., which have similar leanings, could decide to unite at the end of the week.
