There will be big changes for this summer’s Capitol Hill Block Party, one of the few ticketed, multi-day music festivals on the planet to take place on a city’s streets. Producers have announced the 2025 lineup including big changes as the festival will drop its Friday opening day and the annual music event will transition to a “21+” only event.

The 2025 Capitol Hill Block Party will take place on only two days — Saturday, July 19th and Sunday, July 20th.

We’re checking with CHBP to learn more about the changes. Producers announced this week the full lineup and details would be revealed Tuesday morning. Some early sale passes for a planned three-day festival had already been on sale.

The downsizing and streamlining of the 27th edition of the Block Party also comes with a more modest lineup than the neighborhood experienced in 2024. 2025 CHBP will bring some fun acts but nothing appears to be on the scale that Chappell Roan hype reached at last year’s festival as Pink Pony crowds inside — and outside — the Block Party’s fences swelled to epic proportions.

The 2025 CHBP lineup is led by Thundercat, Porter Robinson, DJ Pee.Wee, The Dare, Dora Jar, Fcukers and several other bands and DJs the old people reading this will say they have never heard of.

In 2024, the $100-plus ticketed event’s producers said they capped sales to 10,000 for Friday’s first day despite the massive surge in interest around the night’s headliner, Chappell Roan. Producers said city officials would allow up to 14,000 people to fill E Pike and the surrounding streets — “the maximum capacity for our footprint determined by the Seattle Fire Department.”

Block Party’s Daydream State production company also increased security last year following a deadly shooting outside the gates of the festival in 2023. The family of Essence Greene who was shot and killed last July as late night crowds formed around street racers outside the fences of the festival at Broadway and Pike, sued over the 20-year-old’s death.

The area around the festival footprint continues to both be a busy nightlife core for the city — and a public safety challenge. CHS reported here on the mayor’s office’s ongoing plan to address street disorder and drug use around Broadway and Pike .

Before the pandemic, the City of Seattle was looking at reining in CHBP. The 2019 festival took place against a backdrop of renewed scrutiny of the festival’s impact on the neighborhood and an effort to better document the issues, problems, and opportunities surrounding the annual for-profit event. A city-hired consultant formed focus groups, an online survey, as well as interviews with residents, businesses and local business and neighborhood agencies about the impact of the event.

Today, many of those concerns have been pushed aside and other ticketed street events in the neighborhood like the Queer/Pride music festival have grown. The three-day Queer/Pride Festival announced its 2025 lineup earlier this year including headliners Tinashe, Lil’ Kim, Rebecca Black, Countess Luann, and Heidi Montag. The QPF festival takes place on 11th Ave on Friday, June 27th through Sunday, June 29th.

The Block Party has a long history in the neighborhood where it has grown from a free, loosely organized neighborhood party into a major business. The Block Party’s production company includes ownership from Pike/Pine institutions including the Neumos and Barboza family, Lost Lake Cafe, the Comet, and Big Mario’s.

In 2023, CHS reported on the 25th year of the music festival as Block Party producers continued to grow the festival while trying not to increase its physical footprint and impact on the surrounding the neighborhood. Recent years as the event has grown and ticket prices risen have included ongoing efforts from CHBP organizers to engage with and support local artists and businesses.

In the 2000s, CHBP was also a two-day affair with a Friday-Saturday schedule. CHS reported here in 2010 as CHBP organizers were successful in expanding the festival and adding Sunday to the schedule. Producers at the time promised a quieter, shorter day to wind down the event.

While the change from a three-day festival back to a two-day event will be welcomed by many in the neighborhood, the switch to a 21 and older event will be a sad blow for young music fans. The change will allow producers to streamline entry into the festival grounds and eliminate the crowded fencing required to separate areas where alcohol is available from the all-ages areas while also making it easier to manage who can access parts of the festival that take place inside the music clubs within the CHBP footprint. But it will also leave many young music fans on the other side of the festival’s fences looking in and peeking over.

UPDATE: In its announcement of the 2025 lineup, CHBP says the 21+ change is about  “optimizing the festival layout to enhance the customer, fan, and neighborhood experience.”

UPDATE x2: A spokesperson said that producers don’t have many more specifics they can share at this point around the shift from being an all-ages festival.

“The shift to a two-day, 21+ festival allows us to refine the format and offer a tighter, more dynamic experience for our guests,” the spokesperson said in a statement sent to CHS. “This is the first year we’re able to make these layout changes, so condensing the festival to two days is something we’re trying out as we assess how we can optimize the overall quality of performances, logistics, and atmosphere.”

Block Party organizers “will assess future formats based on community feedback and the evolving live entertainment landscape,” the spokesperson said.

The 2025 Capitol Hill Block Party takes place July 19th and 20th around 10th and Pike. Learn more at capitolhillblockparty.com.

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