From today until Sept. 2, top officials of the G20 — the financial forum that influences global markets to insulate the wealthy — are meeting in Asheville, NC. Protesters have gathered to call attention to the meeting and tell those attending they aren’t wanted or needed here.

G20 members began arriving in the small Appalachian town today. To oppose the #G20 protesters with banners and large puppets have taken to the bridges leading into downtown Asheville spanning the highway: “Workers over billionaires” and “fascist finance ministers out of our forest.”

The meeting, which will draw members of the group’s “finance track” is smaller than the global summit that happens annually, but its members set policy for the larger forum. The group is made up of finance ministers from participating countries, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Brought to Asheville nearly 2 years after Hurricane Helene devastated the region, the federal government wanted the meeting to take place here to show off how well the area has recovered. But locals say the federal government wasn’t what helped the recovery — neighbors helped each other get back on their feet.

Finance ministers, US Sec. of the Treasury Scott Bessent, governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and other financiers will spend the long weekend at the upscale Grove Park Inn just north of downtown Asheville. There, they’ll meet and determine the future of economic policies that have global influence.