DCist (05/09/22) Williams, Elliot C.

High ticket prices for megaproducer Pharrell Williams' Something in the Water (SITW) music festival in Washington, D.C., have prompted local activists to plan a rival Juneteenth (June 19) event and protest at Freedom Plaza. The three-day SITW event sells for a minimum $350 per pass, with no options to purchase a single-day ticket. With those passes currently sold out, only $399 passes, not including fees, remain. SITW is partly supported by the D.C. mayor's office and Events DC, and Nee Nee Taylor, co-founder of grassroots activist group Harriet's Wildest Dreams, started posting to Instagram shortly after the announcement, calling the event unaffordable for average Black D.C. residents. "When I saw the prices, I knew that Something in the Water couldn't be for us, because the people I serve can't afford $300 tickets," she said. Taylor lobbied other activists to try to host "a free water concert for the people — our people — who can come and actually enjoy and celebrate what this day's supposed to be about; and that's freedom, as we continue to fight white supremacy, capitalism, and gentrification." Organizer Wayne Palmer, who owns D.C.-based production company Washington Source, has answered the call, and the activists have applied for a National Park Service permit to organize the event at Freedom Plaza. Palmer said he is trying to book local artists, or "every single go-go band that's not on that [SITW] card."

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