The loud clang of a cymbal crash, a person in a pickle suit and a puppet of a large green alien sporting a pink dress and a blonde ponytail in the midst of a procession of colorful and zany puppets were the sights and sounds on campus Wednesday afternoon. This “Freak March” went down the heart of campus through Trousdale Parkway.

Hosted by Freak Nature Puppets in conjunction with Vision and Voices, the event ran from noon to 6 p.m. Students and Los Angeles community members were given materials to build puppets before the actual parade began around 5:30 p.m. 

Taking place at Founders Park, puppet lovers sat in the grass or at tables, cutting, shaping, gluing and painting to assemble their creations. Troll heads were suspended from trees, otter masks were scattered across benches and props lay waiting on bushes as community members prepared for the march. 

Freak Nature is a Los Angeles-based puppet collective that regularly performs at the Elysian Theater, a comedy club. As a growing organization, they previously collaborated with the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre at Coachella in April. 

The Freak March was open to anyone, with attendees ranging from small children with their parents to industry production designers, all looking for ways to express their creativity. A small group of students discovered the event while passing by.

“We were walking around before our second class start[ed] and we were like, ‘Oh, might as well join because it’s for free, and it was fun,’” said Harry Corla, a first-year master’s student studying human security and geospatial intelligence. 

Aside from students and faculty, several L.A. residents found the event through Instagram, as puppet enthusiasts or followers of Freak Nature. Many of them brought projects that they had been working on for a long time, while others spent a few hours fabricating entirely new puppets on the day. 

Attendee Issa Lovelace, a fan of the likes of Jim Henson and the Muppets, had long followed Freak Nature Puppets and had been looking forward to the event. 

“It’s just a place for people to express themselves and experiment with things,” Lovelace said. “Making this, I didn’t really know what [my puppet] was gonna look like in the end. I was just like, ‘Let’s trust my instincts,’ and that’s what puppetry lends itself to: fun in the community and experimenting.” 

Attendees got creative with designs including little marionette puppets and felt kittens. Some groups created massive 10- to 20-foot giants that towered alongside trees and rivaled Tommy Trojan. Some individuals were costumed or had their faces painted, becoming the art themselves.

From birds with flappable wings to multi-layered dragons, rainbow jellyfish to unconventional monsters, a singular idea could be fostered into something bigger and bolder through the crafts. Attendee Z Peters, a volunteer with Freak Nature Puppets, said they believe that the art form is a great way to connect with others. 

“I think puppets and building stuff with other people specifically, it really fosters community,” Peters said. “It’s important to bring these kinds of opportunities to college campuses because I actually figured out my love for puppets through college. … You never know who might be interested.”

Everyone was encouraged to create, no matter how much experience they had. Co-organizers Matthew Sater and Ruthie Sater explained that Freak Nature Puppets aimed to make the art accessible to anyone interested.  

“There’s so many different ways that you can do puppetry, and we want to make it feel low stakes and open to involvement of anyone, even people with no experience,” Matthew Sater said. “Wherever someone needs a puppet, we’re happy to help organize something to make it happen.”

Corla said their friend had been struggling to make a bee puppet but found inspiration and turned what they had into a horseshoe crab.

“It makes you be able to adapt … and create new things as you go on because sometimes the first plan doesn’t work out,” Corla said. 

The event placed strong emphasis on one idea: The parade was not about perfection but about the community effort, Matthew Sater said. 

“It’s hard for people to feel less pressure about art making because everyone wants to have a finished product that’s perfect and beautiful and photo ready,” Matthew Sater said. “But making puppets isn’t really about that; it’s about the whole way that it looks in the end with everyone involved.”

Freak Nature Puppets will be hosting a show with Visions and Voices at the Bing Theatre on Oct. 6.