ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Dozens of protestors took handmade signs to Merrimon Avenue this afternoon, spreading out in pockets for over a mile and a half. The protestors were rallying against the G20 Finance Track, a summit of global finance leaders at the Omni Grove Park Inn.
The protest began around 11 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, on the sidewalks of the North Asheville thoroughfare.
The air was filled with chants, cheers and the honking of passing cars as protestors carried signs advocating for climate conservation, voting rights and living wage and criticizing the G20 summit, data centers and President Donald Trump.
Leslie Boyd, one of the organizers of the G20 protest for activist coalition WNC Alignment Table, defined the mission of the demonstration.
“If we have to have capitalism, it can’t be unfettered. It has to be regulated tightly. And also, we need to really start being serious about the climate disaster. We’re in the middle of a climate disaster that’s not gonna get better,” Boyd said. “We want to be seen. We don’t want to be arrested, but we want to be seen. We don’t want to cause trouble. We want to get our message out.”
Boyd explained that the Merrimon Avenue demonstration, one of several organized for the weekend, was meant to reject the idea that Western North Carolina had fully recovered from the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Helene in September 2024.
Leadership from the United States Department of the Treasury, the federal agency behind the G20 summit, has declared that the meetings were taking place in Asheville to reflect “the Trump Administration’s commitment to the revitalization and resilience of western North Carolina.”
However, Boyd said, federal funding for Helene recovery has only scratched the surface of the needs of the community.
“People are suffering. There’s still roads and bridges that aren’t repaired. There’s still houses that can’t be fixed up yet, because contaminants haven’t been taken off their property. There’s just so much that we still need to do that we’re not doing, because we don’t have the money,” Boyd said. “I don’t know if you’ve been to Old Fort or Chimney Rock or Marshall, but while they seem to have cleaned up a lot of the mess, there’s still train cars that were tossed about by the storm. There’s still vacant lots where buildings were demolished by the flood, and while they’ve cleaned up a lot of the debris, you can’t rebuild with no money.”
Instead, community has been the thing that has kept WNC together, Boyd said, and the community deserves the recognition for it.
“The narrative is that we’re just, we’re so strong, we’ve come back. Well, we have done a lot, but not with their help,” Boyd said. “Which is why we’re gonna be naming community organizations tomorrow that we call the ‘C20.’ For community. They’re organizations, like BeLoved Asheville, that have been doing the work and are still doing the work with not enough resources.”
For more information about G20 and the WNC Alignment Table, read our story here.
Protest photo gallery
