Seattle Became “Sandersville” on Saturday August 8

August 9, 2015 Glen Casebeer Adam Smith, Bernie Sanders, Daniel Pak, Ex's With Benefits, Kshama Sawant, Lost Dogma. Tobias The Owl, Westlake Park

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We’ve been hesitant to write anything about the happenings in Seattle at Westlake Park, even though we were there and had pretty crazy access to the incidents as they were unfolding. When I found the cherry spot to shoot photos from though, I had no idea just what that was going to mean in just a short time. But that shouldn’t stop us from writing about the day as a whole.

We are not going to go into a deep philosophical article here about politics or the Black Lives Matter movement although we could because we support both BLM and Bernie Sanders and we are confident some good is going to come out of this. We are going to instead focus on the good stuff that was happening both at Westlake and at the Bands For Bernie event that we helped organize at the Crocodile. You also, might see a photo of the overflow crowd from outside Hec Ed because we ended up there too and that crowd was electric. We can’t speak about the Comet Tavern event because of our involvement with Bands For Bernie but we saw the pics and it looked awesome!

The rally at Westlake Park was in support of Social Security and medicare. The event included speeches by Rep. Adam Smith, Sen. Pramila Jayapal, Kshama Sawant, Marcelas Owens and more as well as the concluding speaker to be Bernie Sanders. The Westlake event also included music by legendary Seattle musician Jim Page, a rockin’ set by the Raging Grannies as well as some great stuff from Daniel Pak(Kore Ionz) with Geo Quibuyen(Blue Scholars) and others.

The Bands For Bernie event followed the Westlake event and although the crowd wasn’t quite what we were expecting, we knew that was possible after what had just happened a few blocks away. That said, Tobias The Owl, Lost Dogma and Ex’s With Benefits left it all on stage. Funnyman Derek Sheen also made an appearance taking the stage to put a comedic spin on the current political scene. It turned out to be a great event and we are excited to be involved with the next one.

Legendary Seattle musician Jim Page getting ready to take the stage at Westlake(NWMS staff photo)

Seattle's Raging Grannies getting the crowd fired up. (NWMS staff photo) — Seattle’s Raging Grannies getting the Westlake crowd fired up. (NWMS staff photo)

Daniel Pak & friends playing at Westlake Park on August 8 (NWMS staff photo)

Bernie Sanders with Marcelas Owens at Westlake Park August 8 (NWMS staff photo)

Bernie Sanders backstage at Westlake Park August 8(NWMS staff photo)

Kshama Sawant with Bernie Sanders at Westlake Park August 8. (NWMS staff photo)

Tobias The Owl at Bands For Bernie event at The Crocodile August 8 (NWMS staff photo)

Comedian Derek Sheen brought some laughs to the Bands For Bernie event at The Crocodile on August 8 (NWMS staff photo)

Lost Dogma at Bands For Bernie event at The Crocodile August 8 (NWMS staff photo)

Ex's With Benefits at Bands For Bernie event at The Crocodile on August 8 (NWMS staff photo) — Ex’s With Benefits at Bands For Bernie event at The Crocodile on August 8 (NWMS staff photo)

Several thousand supporters in the overflow crowd outside of Hec Ed listening to Bernie speak to 12,000 inside. (NWMS staff photo)

So, at the end of the day, even though there were a few disappointing moments, those moments don’t define the rest of the day, and Seattle did indeed become “Sandersville” on August 8th, 2015.