Washington: Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House on Thursday night for what was billed as a noise demonstration and dance party” to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.

I hope you hear us, Trump, the leader of the popular local band TOB shouted. The band blared Go-Go music, a distinctive DC variant on funk, as it headed toward the White House.

Trump was delivering his acceptance speech from the White House’s South Lawn to close out the Republican National Convention. One protester held up a sign, Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue the street where the White House is located.

Acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic, the demonstrators wore masks but there was no social distancing.

Make some noise if you want to drown out Trump, protest organiser Justin Johnson said.

There was a robust police presence but the demonstration was peaceful. At one point, Johnson thanked the police for letting the band and protesters through a barricade. After a brief cheer from the crowd, he said, That’s it. That’s all they get.

The demonstration was significantly smaller than the protests that rocked the nation’s capital this past spring after George Floyd died at police hands in Minneapolis.

Floyd’s family and the families of other Black Americans who were victims of police violence were expected to participate Friday in a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington that is being led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III.

During the protests Thursday night, there was a brief standoff between police and demonstrators, who shouted anti-police slogans. Free the people, fight the power, they chanted. Nearby protesters set up a small guillotine, with the District of Columbia flag as the blade.

Lafayette Park, a traditional site of demonstrations across from the White House, was sealed off and there were some street closures.

The groups ShutdownDC and Long-Live Go-Go had put out word in advance about the planned noise demonstration and dance party to coincide with Trump’s speech.

We’ll be at the White House on Thursday to drown out (Trump’s) racist rhetoric with another vision for the future of our country, the groups said in a statement.

A longtime DC signature sound, Go-Go music emerged last year as a battle anthem for activists fighting fast-moving gentrification in the nation’s capital.

The music has been a regular presence in recent protests against racial injustice and rolling Go-Go trucks with live bands have appeared frequently at the epicentre of the protests, which was renamed by the city as Black Lives Matter Plaza. (AP)

Press Trust of India