On August 30, a concert for Christian nationalist musician Sean Feucht was expected to take place at Cal Anderson Park. This outraged many in the Queer community, particularly those who had the spring Mayday USA protests fresh in their minds, leading some to tag the park with messages disparaging far-right groups. The Lavender Rights Project (LRP) also applied for a permit for a protest.
Although there wasn’t an official confirmation, it was revealed through a transcript of a Community Safety Planning meeting from the Seattle Police Department that Seattle Parks & Recreation had issued a permit for Feucht’s concert in Cal Anderson Park. The city announced the concert after convincing the group to move its event to Gas Works Park instead. However, many were not sure that Feucht would agree to this compromise, seeing as he is someone with a history of disregarding permit rejections, and it was obvious that Feucht chose Cal Anderson Park specifically because it was the heart of the Queer community in Seattle.
More concerning was Feucht’s ties with far-right militia groups, including The Proud Boys, given the announcement of a “Jesus March” from Cal Anderson to Gas Works at around 1 p.m. on the day of the event. Many expected the marchers to be armed and aggressive.
Though the permits for Feucht’s concert were revoked, LRP’s permits were still in place, and so the group held its own counter-event in Cal Anderson. At around 12 p.m., the festivities had already begun, and the entire shelter house was painted with the Transgender flag. Volunteers conducted reconnaissance to spot the marchers and hopefully block them from the main event, though when the time came, no one showed, aside from a few right-wing figures, including disgraced journalist Jonathan Choe.
Though Feucht was not off the hook when it came to protesters. On one side, there was a group of people on a hill overlooking the concert with Pride flags planted into the ground. On the other, protesters near the barricades generated as much noise as possible, to disrupt the event, with kazoos and airhorns; one even had an Aztec death whistle. Despite the tension, the event remained relatively peaceful.
Near the end after being shown an article about Sean Feucht using his ministry's finances for his personal gain, a woman on the concert side claimed it was all lies, quoting her faith as proof that it was merely a ploy to lead her astray.
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