Home Depot Brought A Wall To Ruido Fest, & It Did Not Go Over Well

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 10, 2017 3:20PM

Home Depot display at Ruido Fest / Facebook

President Donald Trump isn't exactly the most popular political figure with much of the Chicago Hispanic community. So when a company whose co-founder publicly supported Trump showed up at Ruido Fest—the city's annual Latin alternative music festival—with a large interactive display of a wall, no less, some attendees were not happy.

Home Depot said the purpose of the wall was to allow festival-goers to try out a special product that supposedly simplifies laying tile, "by letting them decorate their tiles." But given Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus' support of Trump, and the president's "build a wall" anti-immigration rhetoric, protesters on Saturday shouted for the display to be taken down. (While Marcus is a co-founder of Home Depot, he retired from his CEO and chairman positions 14 years ago.)

Video from Saturday posted on social media shows protesters shouting, "We don't want it! We don't want it!" A Home Depot rep looks to be supporting the display as it appears to be jostled. Warning: The video contains swearing.

The wall was eventually taken down and removed by staff, but not before, according to witness Vicko Alvarez Vega, some responding security was physically aggressive with protesters, including a choke hold being administered to one man in the vicinity, she said. "I understand security's presence at a large festival but the force used by some of the guards was excessive..." Vega told Chicagoist by email.

Chicagoist has reached out to Ruido Fest representatives and will update this post as necessary.

A Home Depot representative told Chicagoist that the company was there "to show our support for the community, so this was a very disappointing misunderstanding."

Vega however thought the wall was "tone deaf," although she was happy with the resolution. "That a company who sells building materials could not be a little more creative with the activity is ridiculous," she said. "But also Ruido Fest was irresponsible in deciding to partner with Home Depot knowing the controversy behind the founder's support for Trump. I think these were two unfortunate decisions on the part of Ruido Fest and Home Depot, but I am glad the wall came down and the booth was eventually closed."

Meanwhile, don't expect to see the controversial display at a festival any time soon. "I don't think we'll tile a wall at these events because we don't want anyone to misunderstand the project," a Home Depot spokesperson added.

Grounds where the wall previously stood / Photo: Tyler LaRiviere