On the Friday night before the rally, hundreds of white nationalists led by Richard B. Spencer marched on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia. Heyer's friend was livestreaming the videos on Facebook. She saw white supremacists and neo-Nazis marching with torches and openly giving Nazi salutes. Heather’s friends said that the videos scared Heather. They decided not to go to Saturday’s much larger Unite the Right rally, because they thought it would be even more dangerous. But later that night, Heather texted her friend, "I feel compelled to go, to show solidarity."