Good after­noon from Char­lotte! Today, in hon­or of Labor Day, and to thank the peo­ple of Char­lote for wel­com­ing us to their fine city, the DNC is throw­ing a big par­ty called Car­oli­naFest in Uptown. It’s essen­tial­ly a big, fes­tive street fair, with a tem­po­rary food court, big stage, aux­il­iary stage, and lots of tents set up for ven­dors and orga­ni­za­tions doing out­reach to delegates.

The AFL-CIO, for instance, has an activ­i­ty called “Hug A Thug”, giv­ing del­e­gates an oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet local union lead­ers and get their pic­tures tak­en. (For those not in on the joke, the right wing fre­quent­ly refers to labor lead­ers and orga­niz­ers as “union thugs”. Hence, Hug A Thug — a tongue-in-cheek rejoin­der to the right wing).

As the old say­ing goes, a pic­ture is worth a thou­sand words. Here are some glimpses of Car­oli­naFest as seen through our Zuiko lens:

Conventiongoers and guests explore CarolinaFest
Many ven­dors set up shop along Try­on Street to offer good­ies or mer­chan­dise to con­ven­tion­go­ers and guests explor­ing Car­oli­naFest. (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
Food court at CarolinaFest
The food court — or per­haps food block would be a bet­ter descrip­tor — on Try­on Street. (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
View going northeast on Tryon Street
Car­oli­naFest took up sev­er­al blocks of Try­on Street. The road was closed to traf­fic for the dura­tion of the event, though odd­ly enough, the traf­fic lights were not shut off. (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
C-SPAN Bus
The C‑SPAN bus at Car­oli­naFest (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
A protest sign at CarolinaFest
Pro­tes­tors at Car­oli­naFest stress that the Amer­i­can peo­ple want good jobs, health­care, and eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty, not for­eign inva­sions and occu­pa­tions. (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
The main stage at CarolinaFest
The main stage at Car­oli­naFest, as seen from some yards away (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
Jeff Bridges performs
Actor and musi­cian Jeff Bridges per­forms at Car­oli­naFest. Bridges is a strong advo­cate for stamp­ing out child hunger. (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

Lat­er tonight, the Wash­ing­ton State del­e­ga­tion will be cel­e­brat­ing Labor Day at Mac’s Speed Shop. Look for anoth­er post about that event lat­er this evening.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

Adjacent posts

Enjoyed what you just read? Make a donation

Thank you for read­ing The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Institute’s jour­nal of world, nation­al, and local politics.

Found­ed in March of 2004, The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate has been help­ing peo­ple through­out the Pacif­ic North­west and beyond make sense of cur­rent events with rig­or­ous analy­sis and thought-pro­vok­ing com­men­tary for more than two decades.

The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate is fund­ed by read­ers like you and trust­ed spon­sors. We don’t accept unso­licit­ed ad buys or pub­lish con­tent in exchange for money.

Help us keep The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate edi­to­ri­al­ly inde­pen­dent and freely avail­able to all by becom­ing a mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute today. Or make a dona­tion to sus­tain our essen­tial research and advo­ca­cy jour­nal­ism. Your con­tri­bu­tion will allow us to con­tin­ue bring­ing you fea­tures like Last Week In Con­gress, live cov­er­age of events like Net­roots Nation or the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, and reviews of books and doc­u­men­tary films.

Become an NPI mem­ber Make a one-time donation