Starting at 10:00am, the crowds gathered in front of the Bellingham City Hall for music, speeches and poetry in preparation and support of the Womxn’s March on Bellingham.
The event, which garnered support world-wide, was a demonstration for “solidarity, raising our collective voice, and lifting up the most marginalized among us recognizing that this new administration will affect us all in different ways,” according to the Women’s March on Bellingham event page. The Bellingham event organizers opted to replace the “e” in Women’s with an “x” to be more gender-inclusive (more information about this is provided on their event page).
The march itself began shortly after 11:00am, and due to sheer number of participants (early estimates were between 8,000-10,000), it was well after noon before all marchers had completed the 1.1 mile long loop. The energetic crowd cheered about halfway through as a rainbow appeared in the blue sky directly overhead.
As participants made their way back toward City Hall, many were thankful that our friends at Goat Mountain Pizza, Simmering Tava with their steaming plates of Indian food, AB’s Hillbilly Gyros, and H Community and Coffee were all out re-fueling marchers.
Festivities continued into the afternoon with more speakers and musicians and people milling around the several tents representing local service-oriented groups.
Business was booming throughout downtown as well. With the thousands of participants in the march, restaurants buzzing with locals.
