The math will never work out right for Capitol Hill Block Party. There are the two years of pandemic cancellations. And the debate on its origin. Are you a summer of 1997 truther or do you go back further still to the days when the events were more street fair than a massive, three-day festival on the streets of Pike/Pine?

Friday, after COVID’s lost summers, the 24th year of the Block Party as we pretty much know it will arrive.

Like this year’s Pride revelers who celebrated in Pike/Pine’s beer gardens in June for the first time in three years, the 30,000 or so attendees who will visit Pike/Pine across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be experiencing the return of a summer Capitol Hill tradition.

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, and the festival’s relationship to the neighborhood appears to have greatly shifted during the lost time.

Some of the fences have shifted, also.

Led by Diplo, Charli XCX, and Jai Wolf, the 2022 CHBP lineup includes a mix of national headliners and Pacific Northwest artists and bands slated to take the main stage at Broadway and Pike starting July 22nd. New this year are additional stages added to the mix within the chain-link fences of the festival’s boundaries, each in front of a neighborhood venue from beyond the Neumos family — the Vermillion Stage, Wildrose Stage, Cha Cha Stage, and the Cafe Racer Stage. The last time CHBP went off, of course, Cafe Racer hadn’t yet moved into the neighborhood. The new stages also mean shifts in the fenced-off, ticketed areas.

A new factor in 2022 will be COVID-related cancellations. So far, producers haven’t announced any lineup changes.

Meanwhile, there will be plenty to do outside the fences. Here’s what it looked like on the edges of Block Party in 2019. Events like Battle on the Block from 35th North featuring a mini ramp contest and an open skate  by Skate Like A Girl will take place across the way at Cal Anderson. Chophouse Row and Havana will also be hosting events.

For many businesses and parts of the neighborhood’s nightlife communities, the return of Block Party is 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 now been mostly wiped away by larger concerns about survival of the neighborhood’s economic underpinnings and culture through the challenges of the pandemic.

Daydream State points to a survey effort 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.”

But responses to a city-run survey on major events were less sanguine. “There is an extraordinary imbalance of impact on certain neighborhoods in the city when it comes to special events. In many ways, it is commensurate with how growth and transportation impacts certain neighborhoods,” one respondent put the situation best. “In the same way I might ask why for a time it seemed all the tear-downs and new boxy apartment buildings all had to happen in Capitol Hill, I might ask why all the special events have to happen here.”

For many respondents including this one, their issues with Block Party and major events weren’t with the parties and festivals themselves but the lack of support for Capitol Hill businesses and residents from the producers and the city.

In the past, Block Party producers have announced grants and spending to support local businesses inside and outside the festival’s fences. This year, Daydream State has pledge to support a larger issue with a promise of $10,000 to the Northwest Abortion Access Fund.

All the survey work has also produced insights on smaller, logistical improvements that will be especially appreciated on a hot and sunny weekend.

A top request from past attendees is more access to water. The Block Party will permit guests to bring empty water bottles and “working to ensure everyone has access to free drinking water throughout the festival.”

CHBP tickets including $85 plus fees single-day passes and the full schedule are available at capitolhillblockparty.com.

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