The Juggalo March Is Not a Joke

In a year of weird American politics, this weekend’s Juggalo March in Washington, D.C., offers a fresh opportunity to marvel at the rich pageant of surrealism that has become life in the nation’s capital. On Saturday, thousands of followers of the Detroit-area rap-rock duo Insane Clown Posse are gathering on the National Mall to protest the classification of ICP fans, known as Juggalos, as a criminal gang, according to a now-infamous FBI threat assessment from 2011. The band has been waging a legal war against the FBI, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, ever since.

The Juggalo convergence is being greeted with a mix of alarm and confusion among D.C. residents who are not Down with the Clown. So we reached out to Scott Cummings, a New York-based filmmaker, to help us understand exactly what to expect from a scene whose facepainted adherents are feared, mocked, and misunderstood.