One afternoon in June, I stepped out of my house in Hollywood and fell down a rabbit hole.
Standing at a crosswalk, I heard beating drums and an approaching crowd, and suddenly found myself swept away in a tide of extremely hyped young people dripping in streetwear, linking arms, and holding up signs with slogans like, RACISM IS SMALL DICK ENERGY! The heat of so many sweaty bodies after months of sterile isolation was overwhelming. I’m a music and weed journalist, and the last time I found myself in a massive throng of turned-up young people was… Coachella.
This feels like Big Festival Energy, I thought.
“Protestchella”—what I started calling that Hollywood protest in jest—was organized by the superstar rapper YG and Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and ended up drawing 50,000 people, making it the largest George Floyd protest in LA yet. It was a scene: YG filmed the music video for his protest song “Fuck Donald Trump” at the march; Vanessa Hudgens showed up in a Gucci mask; and ravers hula-hooped like they were at Burning Man.