Nearly a thousand D.C. residents gathered at the Washington Monument on Saturday for an unusual kind of rally — not to chant slogans or wave signs, but simply to scream. The gathering drew a crowd to the base of the 555-foot monument on the National Mall, where participants let out a collective shout before dispersing back into one of the busiest weekends the Mall has seen in months.
The scream-in, also covered by WUSA9, took place on October 17, 2026, the same day a few hundred people gathered at the nearby Lincoln Memorial.
The Washington Monument itself appears in a Recreation.gov listing for National Mall and Memorial Parks. It served as the physical gathering point for Saturday's crowd, much as it has for other large public events on the Mall throughout the year.
A National Trend of Group Screaming
The D.C. gathering fits into a broader pattern of organized collective screaming that has taken hold in major U.S. cities over the past year. In Chicago, a group that began as Scream Club Chicago launched in the summer of 2025 and grew into a weekly tradition drawing hundreds of participants to the shore of Lake Michigan, founded by Manny Hernandez, a breathwork practitioner, and Elena Soboleva, a personal-branding professional, per NBC Chicago.
A similar event unfolded on the West Coast the month before the D.C. gathering. More than 100 residents assembled at San Francisco's Ocean Beach in September for an event called Guttural Scream at the Sea, where attendees screamed toward the ocean at full volume, according to a post on Instagram
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Why People Are Drawn to Screaming Together
Mental health experts have pointed to physiological reasons behind the appeal of these gatherings. Screaming initially triggers the body's sympathetic nervous system, releasing adrenaline and venting physical tension, before the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in to lower heart rate and promote a sense of relaxation, according to reporting by El País. The report also describes screaming as a form of emotional release.
A Packed Weekend on Federal Parkland
Saturday's scream gathering was just one of several draws on and around the National Mall that day. The White House also welcomed thousands of visitors to its grounds for the official 2026 Fall Garden Tours, a semiannual event granting public access to the South Lawn and gardens, according to the Trust for the National Mall.
The Mall has hosted a heavy slate of mass public gatherings throughout 2026, including the Rededicate 250 Christian prayer rally in May and the March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote rally in August, underscoring the grounds' role as a premier venue for national civic, religious, and political events.
Later this month, Washington's Smithsonian Institution will offer its own seasonal twist on the scream theme. The National Postal Museum has scheduled its Stamp & Scream family event for October 31, 2026.
