It seems worse this year—they’re starting the process this morning. The black tarps are just now being hung.

I love the Block Party for it’s music (mostly local bands) and being able to see my neighbors and friends in the street for a few days without car traffic. But I can’t understand why a neighborhood known for it’s inclusive qualities (everyone is welcome) allows promoters to create a blockaded zoo atmosphere that inspires frat-like behavior. If we opened it up a bit by not allowing tarped fences and letting the existing bars on the block handle the alchohol sales (instead of big beer tents) we’d get the music-in-the-streets, neighborhood, all-ages feel that would make this block party rule the world.

This is a total mess. Every year for the last few years the “Block Party” becomes more of a private, alcohol fueled mess and less of a community affair.

On a purely aesthetic level, this is the wrong way to treat public space. When you go to the Ballard Farmer’s market, the Fremont Solstice, the Wallingford Bratfest, the Madrona Mayfair, or the Mount Baker Day in the Park, it doesn’t look like the neighborhood has been turned into a penitentiary holding pen. That’s because the neighborhood is actually involved and the aesthetic is creative and celebratory. Capitol Hill deserves better than chain link, tarps, honey buckets and Abbey Party Rentals. It looks like crap up here. What would it have taken to involve art groups in designing murals for street caps, rather than ugly chain link fences with black out tarps?

On a community level, the exclusion, ageism, and emphasis on drinking is destructive of what this very tolerant and accepting community is all about. What would the impact have been if the admission was a donation like the very successful Folklife festival and if every stage was all ages, instead of patronizingly putting the kids in the corner. Frankly, I’m sad to see Vera playing along with this sort of ageist and exclusive use of a public forum that puts kids on the side. I grew up in Seattle loving the free mural amphitheater shows (my fave was when the U-Men set the moat on fire); kids deserve that sort of exposure to music in community festivals like this. Locking them out sends the wrong message.

The pink elephant in the room here is money. Who is making the money from selling access to the public streets and who is making money from all the alcohol sales? Who sold the neighborhood to Toyota, Comcast, and Miller Beer and how much did they get for it?

I’d much rather see an open access event that closes streets to traffic but makes the event open to all. If the numerous clubs and bars in the neighborhood were allowed to host events in front of their own venues, a big piece of the expense of the event could be borne by the businesses in the neighborhood.

The long and short of it is, this event has become a mess—and it’s time for the community to take it back from the promoters, open it up to all ages, get away from the profit motive, and celebrate the neighborhood instead of hosting this caged in mess of a beerfest.

In contrast, the West Seattle Summerfest this year was a very enjoyable community event, kid friendly, non-commercial, inclusive, and made me want to explore West Seattle more as a result.

I also think it’s because it’s not free so that way it guarantees no one sneaks in for free.

Something to aim for—through the late 90s and into the 2000s Seattle rockman about town, Jeff Gilbert, used to run the Pain In The Grass series at the Seattle Center Amphitheater. It was a summer series of free concerts—all ages, Seattle bands, free of charge. Those concerts ruled! It was some of Seattle’s best bands (I recall seeing Mudhoney in 1997—see picture) and they’d take the stage free-of-charge to rock out for their city. There were often crowds of 5,000 – 10,000 people on Friday afternoons under the Space Needle doing what Seattle does best.

Anyhow, it seems like an expanded version of Pain In The Grass would be a great thing for the Cap Hill Block Party to aim at achieving. A free, all-ages, music weekend without fences, featuring Seattle’s best bands giving it up for the neighborhood that supports them more than any other in town. Street vendors and other public events that don’t require a $12 wristband. To keep the adults plenty lubricated we could allow bars like The Comet, The Elysian, Barca, etc. to have small sidewalk areas for serving alchohol outside their establishments.

Other ideas?

The Stranger are the folks who put this on. If they would have any defense of the above, they’d happily tell you. You guys should contact them and let them know.

I just remember that I was really turned off from the last Block Party when I was trying to see Built To Spill play. The main area (which was all ages but adjacent to the packed beer garden area) was so incredibly packed. It was the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt at an outside music event in a long time. Even during those main stage shows at Bumbershoot, at least I had some personal space there, even.

As far as aesthetic issues, I completely agree with Josh here. My only defense would be that it would be one less thing for the organizers to worry about, and it might have been a large extra expense if they had an art organizer for the event as well—which could be argued would help bring in more people to appreciate other aspects of the Block Party besides just the rock n’ roll, etc.

i have a bad feeling about what this year’s block party is devolving into…