• 13 hours

    Crowds like I’ve never seen!

    Seriously, I’ve never seen smaller crowds than this for something in DC. Like, when I lived there the number of people just loitering on the mall on a random Tuesday was bigger than what I’ve seen from this event.

  • Never heard one bit about this fair prior on tv or the.internet till i started seeing pics of a empty fair on lemmy

  • 17 hours

    One thing people aren’t talking about is the insane security perimeter they have which bans basically everything other than a cell phone. No backpacks, cameras, laptops, “pointy umbrellas,” hard water bottles, etc. Its made it basically impossible for a normal tourist to bring in normal tourist kit. And obviously no locals want anything to do with this.

    No other event in DC does this. Street fairs, events on the mall, parades - none of them have this kind of security. It’s very clearly a bunch of oddly paranoid fascists buying their own conspiracies about Antifa vandals or whatever.

  • Wow. There’s a part of me that feels sad, because any empty event is a weird empty liminal space. There’s a much larger part of me that says who did you make this for and maybe that’s why.

    Pride parades have been hugely attended. Interesting what happens when everyone feels welcome and accepted.

    Then also, I had never heard about this until after it started. Where was the marketing team for this? Heard more about the redneck brawl-ma-geddon bs than I heard about this.

    • There was a fair planned with bipatrisan support by Smithsonian. Trump pulled it and gave money to his friends and you got this.

      • 9 hours

        He transferred the amounts which had been set aside for the other event to this one. Except clearly this event didn’t cost the $126million which was earmarked for this. So he pocketed at least $100million of those taxpayer funds for himself.

      • Honestly, good. Wouldn’t want the Smithsonian putting on an actually good event during this shitshow of an administration. What you see here is far more representative of the state the country is currently in.

        Happy 250th, ya filthy animal!

  • This is wildly embarrassing for the ones working and those that set it up. I wouldn’t go to THIS one, but if I heard about a giant state fair with no one in it, I’d be like, “fuck yeah that sounds awesome!”

    • Setting up local celebrations across the country is apparently what America250 is about, but Trump wanted to do his own thing and so he played up the “Freedom250” events that he largely controls as the official celebration instead.

      Fun fact about the Freedom250 fair: states are not reimbursed in any way for their participation, which as you can imagine is very expensive, so many of them simply decided not to show up because it was not worth it.

  • I have seen pumpkin patches having bigger turnout than this single ride State Fair.

  • 17 hours

    Turns out not many people want to be associated with felons, rapists, or pedophiles in any way, shape, or form.

  • 20 hours

    Do you have to pay to go to this or can anyone just walk up? Because that’s fucking nobody for being on the national mall.

    • You need to go through a TSA style security check, including “clear plastic bags”, but it’s free…

      • 18 hours

        That’s what I thought. Means people are actively avoiding it. I’m sure the heat is deterring people but the Mall is usually very crowded this time of year.

          • 13 hours

            Yes, they are saying that. I used to live in DC and summer is when I would avoid the National Mall because of all the tourists. It’s also brutal humid. But lousy with tourists in summer.

            • That does seem to be what they’re saying they think they’re saying. Straight and forward.

  • You should head over to Arts & Industries for the Folklife Festival!