About this Event
ORGANIZERS' NOTE:
During nearly two decades of organizing twenty-some human banners, Travis Van Brasch and Brad Newsham (this is Brad typing) have seen imagery from several banners immediately go viral. We, plus thousands of event participants, often fancy that our events have “caused the needle to move” – or to at least twitch a time or two.
Overhead photos and video from the very first “Beach Impeach” event (2007, see Sam Rubin's video below) went nationwide on ABC-news by early afternoon. CNN blasted everything worldwide before sunset. As I pulled my taxicab out of the cab lot on Monday morning, the European News Agencies rang my cell to ask photo permissions. That afternoon, a similar call from Asia.
For at least a month in the fall of 2018, Gavin Newsom’s campaign for governor saturated the Golden State’s television airwaves with a 30-second commercial featuring an aerial photo of 5,000 seemingly electrified people at our RESIST!! event. Multiple times per day, that jaw-dropper was viewed by millions of Californians. The list goes on and on…
Participants continue to tell us that human banners are the best, most peaceful, most fun rallies they’ve ever attended. A refrain I’ve often heard: “Some of the best days of my life.” Travis and I have come to consider that the enduring and unquestionable value of the events has been the way they have allowed thousands and thousands of people to come out from behind their computers to join like-minded others in real time and real space in the midst of staggering scenery to – using only our bodies – create stunning and unforgettable works of art. As well as community! All of this in hopes of making a difference. And perhaps seeing ourselves on the evening news.
We warmly invite you to join us.
Please register. Registering is so very very helpful for us, allows us to prepare as best we can. We can easily handle more than 1,500 participants. When we reach 1,500 registered, we will add more tickets.
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Starting at 7:30am on Sunday, volunteers will etch the message FLIP CONGRESS into the sand in 100-ft lettering, inside an approx 200-foot circle. (Rough sketch to follow soon.)
Participants should please arrive AT the beach by 11:00am and follow the lead of volunteers (we're all friends here) as well as previous particpants who seem to "know the drill."
By 11:30am, please have chosen your spot inside the lettering or in the outer ring. We should all be "in formation" by 11:45am. Helicopter and photographer will be overhead at noon. Event should be over by 12:15pm.
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MANY PARTICPANTS will be returning veterans. Please follow their lead. It'll all work out. We intend to be "in formation" for no more than 30 minutes. (We organizers will occasionally post more information here, so please check back from time to time -- and definitely in the day or two before the event. There are always last-minute instructions, changes, things to consider. Weather has cancelled a couple of events, but Sunday is looking great right now – sixty degrees, partial clouds, minimal breeze.)
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To see imagergy from past events, you can google "Ocean Beach Brad Newsham human banner", and you'll probably be flooded. You might start :
Or published on the afternoon of the very first event by 13-year old film-maker Sam Rubin, who was the first person (after me) to show up -- with his mother Sally right along behind. Sam is thirty-something now. His video still kills me.
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[ NOTE: The photo at top is from an impromptu human banner -- "The State of the Union is: TYRANNY!" -- pulled together in 68 hours earlier this month of March by Travis and myself and 70 other people. That smaller event led us into this one. This one will be considerably larger.]
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
704 Great Hwy, Stairwell #7 (Balboa Av and Great Highway), 704 Great Highway, San Francisco, United States
USD 0.00
