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25 years* of Capitol Hill Block Party: 2023 lineup announcement a milestone for Pike/Pine festival

CHBP 2022

With a COVID-19 scratch in the historical record, Capitol Hill Block Party is ready to celebrate its 25th year. The annual three-day music festival that takes place every July on the streets of Pike/Pine has announced its planned 2023 lineup.

The winter announcement of this year’s acts should help warm up Capitol Hill music fans with thoughts of summer. For others who live in the area and would rather avoid the three-day crush, it is a reminder to book a camping trip from Friday to Sunday, July 21st to the 23rd.

The 25th anniversary edition of the festival headliners include electronic music group Louis The Child, “New York City-based Grammy Award-nominated electronic duo” Sofi Tukker, “Florida rapper” Denzel Curry, “British singer” PinkPantheress, and “PNW-based music icon” Goth Babe.

The 25th edition of CHBP will be a milestone though there is debate on how you exactly add up the years.

The Party returned after two years of pandemic cancellations in 2022 and mostly didn’t skip a beat under producer Daydream State, formed by ownership from Pike/Pine institutions including the Neumos and Barboza family, Lost Lake Cafe, the Comet, and Big Mario’s.

The Block Party’s origin is attributed to Jen Gapay of Thirsty Girl Productions, though a skate shop and longtime Pike/Pine business Crescent Down Works may have hosted some version of the event before Thirsty Girl’s first party in 1997.

“I started the Capitol Hill Block Party in 1997 because I was frustrated with the corporate feel of Bumbershoot and the amount of baby carriages,” Gapay told CHS at the festival’s 20th anniversary. “I also wanted to create more of a cool party scene in an urban environment like Capitol Hill.” Gapay said that she wanted people to have a chance to drink, listen to music, and listen to street performers “in an actual street.”

Daydream State’s Jason Lajeunesse

For many businesses and parts of the neighborhood’s nightlife communities, the return of Block Party in 2022 brought an exciting burst of activity and welcomed opportunity to produce revenue after months facing the health and economic challenges of the pandemic.

For others including some who live in the area, the Block Party is a headache of fenced-off streets and slow business.

In 2019, years of tensions between the festival, neighbors, and some of the area’s business community again bubbled up with the city’s event planning officials promising to take a new look at how the event impacts the neighborhood.

Those promises — and the underlying tensions — have been mostly wiped away by larger concerns about survival of the neighborhood’s economic underpinnings and culture through the challenges of the pandemic.

For its first years, Block Party was a free for all event. These days, standard single-day tickets cost $85 a pop. The modern CHBP is far removed from its neighborhood days. Early organizers didn’t even bother trying to sell the Party when they handed it off for free and the modern format of the festival took shape.

In 1997, the flatbed of a truck served as the stage, and performance was limited to five bands and a handful of DJs. There was entertainment for non-music lovers, too. Gapay remembers Blamo the Drunken, Surly Clown, and a dildo ring toss run by Babeland as being “highlights of the event.”

Those changes also mean shifts in what it costs to produce the massive CHBP. Booking an eclectic mix of national and local acts that will fill the fenced-off streets but not turn Pike/Pine into a total zoo is only part of the job. Handling the politics and real needs of area residents and businesses is also now a key portion of the production. It hasn’t always gone smoothly.

“There have been staff changes, and in time, unintended mistakes,” Daydream State’s Jason Lajeunesse said about mitigation efforts before a Block Party a few years back. “We have also tried different programs, some worked better than others.”

Daydream State points at a survey producers ran in 2019 that they say showed attendees believe CHBP helped connect them to “Capitol Hill’s music and arts community” and “over half of the survey’s respondents feel the Capitol Hill Block Party is a Seattle summertime tradition that connects them with the broader community.” The Block Party-distributed survey found that attendees “value the fact that Capitol Hill Block party is locally owned with ties to local businesses and nonprofits.”

For now, fans can look forward to July and a 25th anniversary celebration of music in the streets of Pike/Pine as Daydream State and Lajeunesse stay busy working out the details behind the scenes to make sure Block Party can return for a 26th year.

CHBP 2023 three-day general admission and VIP passes will be available for presale beginning Tuesday, February 28 at 9 AM with a public on-sale beginning on Friday, March 3 at 9 AM. Check out capitolhillblockparty.com for details.

 

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30 Comments
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Jonathan
Jonathan
1 year ago

This event is now just Bros, woo girls and trash everywhere.

How can a city legally block off a public area and charge for it?

Another weekend full of roadblocks and trash, tell me how this helps the community?

LSRes
LSRes
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonathan

Nothing angers people in Seattle more than other people having a good time.

Sarah
Sarah
1 year ago
Reply to  LSRes

Guess you haven’t experienced the increase of trash everywhere. But yay have fun!

Defund all police
Defund all police
1 year ago
Reply to  Sarah

Trash is all over the city. Even rich neighborhoods. Start there and stop ruining good times.

LSRes
LSRes
1 year ago
Reply to  Sarah

Lol the new CH resident: terrified by trash.

Defund all police
Defund all police
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonathan

It’s a good lineup. And you’re a hater. Get a life dude.

Jonathan
Jonathan
1 year ago

Love how your first priority is the music and joy the neighborhood.

Picture_this
Picture_this
1 year ago

Hopefully you won’t need to rely on the Police. Hahaha

Defund all police
Defund all police
1 year ago
Reply to  Picture_this

Never have, never will.

Matt
Matt
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonathan

I don’t mind having the event, I just wish the organizers and attendees could do more to clean up the neighborhood afterwards like they do in preparation. This area and nearby Cal Anderson were an absolute mess after this last weekend.

Jeremiah
Jeremiah
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonathan

Jonathan wouldn’t mind the traffic disruption if it was his kind of people and not Bros and Woo girls.

d.c.
d.c.
1 year ago
Reply to  Jonathan

Would you say the same about Pride or Seafair? I don’t even like Block Party (too sweaty) but it’s cool to have a homegrown music festival in the neighborhood. And public land is used for private purposes all the time. If there’s issues with trash, take it up with the companies that organize it.

chres
chres
1 year ago

They need to return to “discussing” the impact it has on businesses that have to close down or experience a large loss of revenue during those days. Maybe by, I don’t know, PAYING those business?

I’ve worked at two local stores that get impacted, one that’s right outside the closed off areas, one inside. The one outside tried to remain open but there was no point, one had to close. The compensation we receive? Free passes to an event we have 0 interest in. Selling a pass can get 100 or so, but workers like me are still missing out 3 days of wages worth much more than that, and businesses 3 days of revenue. A weekend during the summer is usually peak buying time for us.

And with how much local small stores have been hurting after lockdown, it’s frankly insulting that there was no real effort to help compensate last year, and that it continues.

Meanwhile, the guy that runs it also runs a bunch of bars and restaurants in the block that can benefit from remaining open during the event.

Caphiller
Caphiller
1 year ago
Reply to  chres

I’m genuinely curious – why couldn’t a store, whether inside or outside the fence, stay open during the block party? Seems there would be many potential customers passing by.

chres
chres
1 year ago
Reply to  Caphiller

Genuine answer: because the concert goers aren’t there to shop, for one, which is fine. If I worked at Slow Dance, which I don’t but for example, I wouldn’t be expecting them to buy some clothes or vintage glassware then go out and party. And for two, they get drunk as hell and tend to cause more issues than anything.

Regular customers also can’t get into the stores that are inside the boundaries, so even if they wanted to they can’t go shop.

d.c.
d.c.
1 year ago
Reply to  chres

I do agree there ought to be some kind of more organized remuneration considering the impact. They ought to be able to buy into a share of the ticket sales or something.

chres
chres
1 year ago
Reply to  d.c.

Yeah, exactly.

Defund all police
Defund all police
1 year ago
Reply to  chres

Those businesses can operate elsewhere if they don’t like a community event disrupting their privileged money-making capitalist venture.

chres
chres
1 year ago

LOL I’m gonna assume you a troll. Because if you think the guy running it with all his businesses that can run and make money inside the block party is doing it for anything outside of capitalist gain, you got a lot to learn.

But on the off chance you’re not, we’re not demanding it to stop. But there are stores in that area that are running on thin margins already; they aren’t rich people, they’re just trying to survive like the rest of us.

But if you can’t even bring yourself to care about them, why can’t you care about the workers that are getting left without 3 days of pay. That’s a lot of money that goes toward, you know, food or rent.

Defund all police
Defund all police
1 year ago
Reply to  chres

Then those places can pay their workers for the three days. The onus is on the “business owner” to pay livable wages. Not the community. Not until there’s a change in the system at least.

chres
chres
1 year ago

What are you even talking about? It’s not a charity event, you know that, right? Honestly, can’t tell if troll or woefully obtuse.

jonc
jonc
1 year ago
Reply to  chres

Since you mention charity, the Block Party isn’t one, either. Those stores have to adapt to the situation, and if they can’t do that, the owners won’t be in business very long.

chres
chres
1 year ago
Reply to  jonc

Jeez, two ends of the spectrum of politics coming at me with bad takes.

DD15
DD15
1 year ago

Rebecca Black is playing on……..Friday, of course.

Hal
Hal
1 year ago

NOOOOOO … please make it stop! Just move the event already. It’s not even close to what it used to be.

Defund all police
Defund all police
1 year ago
Reply to  Hal

It’s a solid lineup and people not knowing the artists are probably not trying to listen to new music.

Fund more police
Fund more police
1 year ago

You seem to always want to have the last word. Let it ride, Troll

Picture_this
Picture_this
1 year ago

Looks like a very weak Band lineup??

I’m old
I’m old
1 year ago

I wish they’d bring back the free festival. It was so fun and felt like an actual block party with all local acts where we could just wander around from booths to stages to local businesses. The paid version is just a congested, ridiculously expensive mess that’s more like a Gorge show at an ill conceived location. I hate that you can’t really participate in ANY of it unless you pay for entrance. Doesn’t seem very neighborly.

CKathes
CKathes
1 year ago
Reply to  I’m old

It’s a music festival, not a block party in any meaningful sense. Nothing wrong with music festivals for those who like that kind of thing, but I don’t know why they keep holding it in that bad location. Aside from the effects on the surrounding neighborhood, there’s no room to spread out or roam around, no grass to sit or lie on, very little natural shade. Sounds like a fairly miserable experience no matter how good the music is. Why not hold it in Volunteer Park?