Topics like universal healthcare, activism, human rights, social justice, clean environment, sustainable farms and rank choice voting in Pierce County will be peacefully discussed and celebrated at a festival in People’s Park downtown Tacoma Sunday, Aug. 26 in People’s Park on Hilltop. The whole thing will be powered by solar energy.



The event is being sponsored by three local peace groups — United for Peace of Pierce County, Tacoma Veterans for Peace chapter and a newcomer, Peace Action Coalition in Tacoma, or PACT, which was formed during a commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the War on Terror.



“It’s a remarkable cooperation,” says Thomas McCarthy, PACT organizer. “The goal of the fourth anniversary organizing committee was to have something come out of it to keep the ball rolling. The result was PACT. Our goal is to build four significant peace mobilizations per year.”



PACT currently has 50 members and six steering committee members.



“There has been a lot of protest activity this year,” continues McCarthy. “We wanted to have something positive, an event that talks about what is possible. We want to talk about the kind of system we want, not the kind we are stuck with.”



Sunday’s Peace Festival 2007 will offer music, giant puppets, face painting, and information on healthcare, clean environment, sustainable farms and social justice — all in the name of peace.



“Pierce County has been one of the hottest spots for the strongest peace actions in the country during 2007,” states McCarthy. “A peace march this year from People’s Park to Wrights Park received regional television coverage.”



That peace march on March 17 sparked the Tacoma Puppetistas, a group who operate giant 15-foot puppets that were first used as parade fanfare in the march.



The puppet show this weekend will be a musical performance titled, “John Barleycorn lives again.” McCarthy says it’s an Old English story of life, death and rebirth.



The puppets also were used in a dramatic mock trial on the legality of war during the Watada trial. The largest puppet was a giant judge that required three people to operate. Clips of this performance can be found on YouTube. The infamous WTO protest organizer David Solnit assisted with the puppetistas concept and helped to build some of the characters.



“During the Port (of Tacoma) actions (protests trying to keep the 4th Brigade from deploying) we saw hundreds of young people out there,” says McCarthy. “That’s when you know it’s really becoming powerful. Recently a group called Students for a Democratic Society formed in Tacoma.”



Steve and Kristi Nebel, stalwarts of the local peace movement and folk musicians who live in Tacoma’s hilltop area, will perform at Peace Festival 2007. They literally live by their music, meaning they earn their sole income by performing music according to McCarthy. “For folks living in Tacoma, that’s pretty impressive,” he says.



Also performing will be John Hoover, an acoustic guitar player who McCarthy says has a great voice.



Interested in participating? Contact pactacoma@yahoo.com.



[People’s Park, Sunday, Aug. 26, 1-4 p.m., Ninth and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Hilltop Tacoma]