Tag Archives: CHBP

CHS Pics | A movie in Cal Anderson Park means summer is here — the returns of Capitol Hill Block Party, and, yes, Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day are next

Posted on by


Cal Anderson got back to its pre-pandemic, pre-2020 protests ways Friday night with a movie in the park. CHS stopped by for scenes from within — and above — the crowd gathered for the Seattle Parks screening of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

Despite Monday’s turn of chilly July-uary weather, the summer will return to Capitol Hill this week with the return of the Capitol Hill Block Party.

And, later this summer, another legendary community event will also return to the neighborhood. Yes, Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day is coming back. Continue reading →

Picking up where it left off three summers ago, Capitol Hill Block Party announces lineup, plans for 2022 return

Posted on by

CAPITOL HILL BLOCK PARTY 2022 FULL LINEUP
DIPLO • CHARLI XCX • JAI WOLF • TORO Y MOI • 100 GECS • REMI WOLF • DANNY BROWN • FLO MILLI • TOKIMONSTA • BEACH BUNNY • DUCKWRTH • THE BETHS • EVAN GIIA • CHET PORTER • CANNONS • SUDAN ARCHIVES • MANILA KILLA • IDK • TKAY MAIDZA • MAGDALENA BAY • KENNY MASON • ELA MINUS • CHLOE MORIONDO • LIZZY MCALPINE • ENUMCLAW • MICHELLE • IAN SWEET • BOYISH • DEMPSEY HOPE • THE BLACK TONES • ARCHIE • BREAKS & SWELLS • THE MOSS • THE GRIZZLED MIGHTY • TEZATALKS • BRENT AMAKER AND THE RODEO • LIVT • ALL STAR OPERA • RUDY • LA FONDA • LINDA FROM WORK • JANG • CLAUDINE MAGBAG • BIBLIOTEKA • ARIANA DEBOO • AMONG AUTHORS • TINSLEY • ERIK WALTERS • JULIETTE • LOVELY COLOURS • JUSMONI • TODD ZACK JR. • KING YOUNGBLOOD • SMALL PAUL • LAURELI • JOZA • JANE DON’T & FRIENDS • SEA LEMON • MOTUS • DAVE SHANAE • RELL BE FREE • HHERB (LIVE SET) • CHINESE AMERICAN BEAR • HALLEY GREG • PINK BOA • ALLA • SEIICHI • GOOD JOB • OH MY EYES

By the time July 2022 rolls around, there is hope that a lot of things will have changed in Seattle since the recent omicron spike. So much has changed since last summer when the Capitol Hill Block Party was canceled due to pandemic challenges. And even more has changed since 2019, the last time the three-day music festival in the streets of Pike/Pine was held.

Tuesday, producers for the event announced the lineup for the 2022 Capitol Hill Block Party with the festival’s recipe seemingly not missing a beat with a mix of national headliners and Pacific Northwest artists and bands slated to take the main stage at Broadway and Pike starting July 22nd.

“If there’s ever been a time to have a community block party to celebrate Seattle’s rich tradition of music and the arts, it’s summer 2022,” Evan Johnson, Capitol Hill Block Party’s talent buyer said in the announcement. “Local businesses — restaurants and bars in particular — have been hit especially hard by the pandemic. We’re excited to help revitalize the neighborhood and bring attention back to the many independent businesses operating in the Pike/Pine Corridor.”

The announcement comes early in the year and follows last May’s decision to pull the plug on the 2021 festival due to concerns over COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns with uncertainty about what would come next for the virus. The 2021 Capitol Hill Block Party cancellation marked the second year that the COVID-19 crisis kept the one of a kind music festival off the streets of Pike/Pine. CHS reported here on the decision to shut the event down in 2020.

Its hopes for helping the revitalization of Pike/Pine in 2022 are also part of a new message following what had been increasing criticism of the ticketed, three-day music festival by some local businesses and neighborhood residents tired of the mess, the crowds, and the disruption of the neighborhood the event represents for some. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Block Party producers announce new music festival set for Labor Day weekend — at Seattle Center, not E Pike and 10th

Posted on by

AminĂŠ at Capitol Hill Block Party on July 21, 2019 (Image: CHBP/Joshua Lewis)

Capitol Hill’s live music scene is primed to take over the city but the Pike/Pine producers behind it say a new Labor Day weekend music festival at Seattle Center won’t replace the city’s Bumbershoot festival and does not mark the end of Capitol Hill Block Party.

The new Day In Day Out festival is planned for Saturday and Sunday, September 4th and 5th, at the Fisher Green Pavilion and will bring together a CHBP-worthy mix of high buzz acts and local up and comers including Chvrches, Kaytranada, AminĂŠ, Big Wild, STFKR, Parisalexa, and Chong the Nomad in a ticketed event featuring “an all-age viewing lawn, a 21+ VIP lounge deck, a spacious indoor-outdoor beer garden, some of the city’s most hype-worthy food trucks and more.”

Producers say Day In Day Out will be “the first Seattle music festival of its kind in the last two years.”

The major new music event is produced by Daydream State, the company formed by Jason Lajeunesse behind Pike/Pine institutions including the Neumos and Barboza family, Lost Lake Cafe, the Comet, and Big Mario’s.

“After an incredibly difficult year for artists, fans and our local creative community, we’re excited to celebrate the return of live music by providing a new platform to revive the festival scene in Seattle,” Lajeunesse says in Wednesday morning’s announcement of the festival.

The neighborhood’s live music scene roared back to life last week but the annual three-day Capitol Hill Block Party music festival usually held at the end of July won’t be part of the 2021 opening. Continue reading →

Despite state’s planned reopening, 2021 Capitol Hill Block Party canceled — UPDATE

Posted on by

(Image: CHBP)

Short, sweet, and to the point, producers of the Capitol Hill Block Party have announced to fans that the annual three-day music festival has been canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions for the second year in a row:

Greetings CHBP ticket holder, loyal customer and music fan!
Unfortunately we still have no direction for what a 2021 festival season could look like from the city or state. While we are optimistic about the fall season for live music, we cannot plan a proper CHBP for July 2021. We want to be transparent and appreciate the optimism you shared with us for the 2021 season. At this time we are issuing full refunds for all tickets sold, while we work on the season ahead.
– CHBP TEAM.

Since the CHBP announcement was released, Gov. Jay Inslee and state officials have set June 30th for a full lifting of Washington’s social distancing and business restrictions.

We’re checking with producers to learn more about the decision and to find out if Inslee’s announcement could shift any planning. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Block Party 2014: Day Three Open Thread

Posted on by
(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

A$AP Rocky closes down CHBP 2014 (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

A$AP Rocky closes down CHBP 2014 (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

(Image: Ashley Genevieve/CHBP with permission to CHS)

(Image: Ashley Genevieve/CHBP with permission to CHS)

You can’t call it a quieter Sunday finale for Capitol Hill Block Party but Day Three 2014 will wrap the 18th edition of the festival without the typical “big name” on the main stage. Instead, the A$AP Mob will finish its work with rapper Rakim Mayers shaking E Pike.

CHS CHBP 2014 | Day One | Day Two | Day Three

Take advantage of the opportunity. A$AP Rocky joins a Day Three that seems likely to extend Saturday’s feel of a really busy night in the Pike/Pine nightlife district with the occasional concert going off out in the street.

(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Block Party 2014: Day Two Open Thread

Posted on by

Day One's main stage crowd (Image: CHBP with permission to CHS)

Day One’s main stage crowd (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

Unlike in 2013, producers could not claim Day One of Capitol Hill Block Party 2014 sold out. No matter. The weather was perfect, the beats, funky, the crowd (even with the knuckleheads drawn to drinking in large groups of people) awesome and full of Pacific Northwest characters.

CHBP 2014 Open Threads: Day One / Day Two

(Image: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

(Image: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

(Image: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

(Image: Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

Excellent pants, Kim (Image: CHBP with permission to CHS)

Excellent pants, Kim (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

Childbirth (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP)
(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP)
(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP)
(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP)
(Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP)
Man or Astro-Man? (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP)
A$AP Rocky meets CHBP (Image: CHBP with permission to CHS)

A$AP Rocky meets CHBP (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

Holy Child autograph session (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

Holy Child autograph session (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

Saturday at Block Party won’t sell out either. The rhythm of the festival schedule remains the same with Day Two’s slate full of deeper cut acts and smaller fan bases. Dance funk by way of Montreal from Chromeo sets the tone but the day is more about the local PNW acts that dominate the stages. More images and notes from Day One and Day Two, below. Let us know what you found at CHBP 2014. We’ll update here and there through the day so help keep us posted.

  • Hot: The National Weather Service says Seattle is on pace for one of its hottest Julys ever. Saturday will help. Highs are expected to sniff 80 F. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Block Party 2014: Day One Open Thread

Posted on by
The Vera Stage is bigger and better this year -- and has a telling new view in the background (Image: CHS intern Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

The Vera Stage is bigger and better this year — and has a telling new view in the background (Image: CHS intern Rayna Stackhouse for CHS)

Spoon loomed large Friday night (Image: CHBP with permission to CHS)

Spoon loomed large Friday night (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)

In the wee hours of Friday morning, Jason Lajeunesse and the Block Party crew initiated the tightly coordinated sequence of events needed to prepare Capitol Hill Block Party 2014 for liftoff. Before the first glimmer of sunlight touches Pike/Pine on Friday, streets needed to be closed, stages erected, and wires ran every which way.

With less sweat, but just as much determination, we present our annual pre-party ritual: the launch of CHS’s Block Party open threads. CHS will update through the weekend on the people making Block Party happen, the crowds, and the community around the festival.

You can also follow @jseattle for updates. Let us know if you see anything — or anybody — interesting, too. You can email us or call/txt (206) 399-5959 for the *really* interesting stuff to let us know what you’re seeing. Or hearing.

    • Luckily, rainfall earlier in the week seems to have purged crummy weather conditions heading into Block Party. The forecast for the rest of the weekend looks ideal, with temperatures in the mid-70s through the weekend afternoons and sunscreen-worthy clear skies.
    • Three-day, two-day, and single day passes are still on sale here. You can also purchase tickets at the gate or at the E Pike Caffe Vita. There are also various local businesses giving away tickets as prizes or offering them as a gift with purchase. Check out the CHBP Facebook page to find the latest promotions.
    • With an event as large as Block Party in an area as dense as Pike/Pine, unofficial spinoffs are part of the fun. This year some people are setting up a hip-hop BBQ, promising “meat, heat, and blunts.” Let us know if you see any other interesting things along Block Party’s peripheral blocks.
    • Call him Billy Gates but don't trust A$AP Rocky was actually hanging at Linda's (Image via Linda's Facebook)

      Call him Billy Gates but don’t trust that A$AP Rocky was actually hanging at Linda’s earlier this week (Image via Linda’s Facebook)

      Music kicks off Friday afternoon with Shy Girls on the Main Stage and Lemolo on the Vera Stage. Lemolo’s Meagan Grandall, who graduated from Seattle University, will also be the first of a hand full of musicians to play CHBP with strong Capitol Hill ties. Benjamin Verdoes of Iska Dhaaf has a daytime gig teaching at Nova High School. Childbirth has Pony Time’s Stacy Peck and Kithkin has former CHS intern/current Seattle Weekly reporter Kelton Sears.The members of Constant Lovers and Gibraltar are known Hillebrities.

    Continue reading →

    Block Party faces its future in a developing Capitol Hill

    Posted on by

    8445426339_94a0fd7a7f_o

    BiIbnqBFAha6NrRZa3oSmY_BJMDsfoDU73YAw99qzVo

    (Image: Alex Crick for CHS)

    IMG_9020

    Capitol Hill Block Party wants to keep the heart of the neighborhood alive as so much of it changes.

    In its 18th year, the weekend event which closes down six blocks of Pike/Pine and draws upward of 30,000 music lovers remains an annual subject of excitement from fans and the rarest of summer musical festival beasts: a three-day commercial concert venue carved out of a living, breathing city neighborhood.

    With A$AP Rocky, Chromeo and Spoon headlining this year, rock fest tourists and plenty of locals will once again swarm the cordoned-off area in the heart of Pike/Pine starting July 25 for a weekend of sights, sounds and selling your soul for a parking space.

    Only in America
    Owner Jason Lajeunesse has not needed the Capitol Hill Block Party to make his mark on the neighborhood. CHS dubbed him one of the ‘Princes of Pike/Pine’ — along with business partner and frequent collaborator David Meinert — due to his extensive stakes in many nearby restaurants and venues, including Neumos and Lost Lake.

    After spending nine years planning the Block Party’s music as co-producer, Lajeunesse took ownership of the event in 2012.

    He believes Capitol Hill Block Party is a product of the neighborhood which gives it its name.

    “I think it’s important to promote the neighborhood year round,” he said. “The Block Party sort of grew with the local and regional bands. As the bands got bigger, so did the Block Party.”

    With four indoor venues, two outdoor stages and dozens of restaurants and bars in the area, the Block Party has the distinction of being the only event of its kind in America.

    “To our knowledge Capitol Hill Block Party is unique as the only ticketed three-day street festival in the country,” Chris Swenson, program manager with the Seattle Office of Film and Music, said. “It’s a little like scooping up half of Sasquatch and plopping it in the middle of a neighborhood for a weekend. The city’s primary concern is safety and, because of the unique layout of the event, each year safety officials and agencies spend many months establishing organizer requirements and emergency plans specific to the site.” Continue reading →

    Capitol Hill Block Party readies for 18th annual neighborhood invasion — UPDATE: 2014 lineup announced

    Posted on by
    The explosion of fun that was CHBP 2013 (Image: CHS)

    The explosion of fun that was CHBP 2013 (Images: CHS)

    IMG_9258

    The hopefully sun-drenched days of the Capitol Hill Block Party are just three short months away and the festival’s producers have been busily making new plans for the three-day Capitol Hill celebration of Pike/Pine’s nightlife culture.

    The 18th annual installment of the festival will once again fall on the last full weekend of July, this year the 25th, 26th, 27th. Block Party producer Jason Lajeunesse told CHS that permits have been issued and most of the bands are booked. The main stage acts and ticket prices are expected to be announced Tuesday morning. The festival annually draws more than 30,000 attendees.

    UPDATE: Spoon, The War on Drugs, and Sunday closer A$AP Rocky will be among the Capitol Hill Block Party 2014 headliners, organizers revealed Tuesday during their ritual announcement on KEXP. Three-day passes also went on sale for a limited time discount of $99.

    Here’s the list of headliners being announced Tuesday morning:

    A$AP Rocky, Spoon, Chromeo, Matt and Kim, The War on Drugs, Odesza, Sol,  A$AP Ferg, Beat Connection, Star Slinger, Budos Band, Tanlines, XXYYXX, Angel Olsen, Poolside, Cymbals, Shy Girls 

    The full lineup and schedule is typically released by early June.

    Tickets can be purchased here.

    “The Block Party is a boisterous and spirited event that takes place right in the heart of Seattle’s artistic community,” Lajeunesse said in a statement released along with the 2014 lineup tease. “This year’s headliners like Chromeo and Matt and Kim will transform the intersection of Pike and Broadway into a giant dance floor. I can’t wait.”

    In December Lajeunesse went before the city’s Special Events Committee to assure the city’s party police that there would be no major logistical changes from last year’s festivities. Over recent years, Block Party planners have attempted to do more with less, packing more music and art into the same confines and doing more to mitigate the festival’s impact on the neighborhood by keeping a lid on attendance and last call. Ticket prices have also climbed with single-day access reaching $40 last year. 2014 three-day passes will start at $99 for a limited time, organizers say. Continue reading →

    Capitol Hill Block Party 2013: Day Three Open Thread

    Posted on by

    (Images: Alex Garland for CHS)

    (Images: Alex Garland for CHS)

    The Flaming Lips go boom. More images from Day Three, below (Images: Alex Garland for CHS)

    Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne gets into the CHBP Day Three "31+" theme (Image: Alex Crick for CHS)

    Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne gets into the CHBP Day Three “31+” theme (Image: Alex Crick for CHS)

    Capitol Hill Block Party Day Three. Anybody seemingly functioning at 100% after the first two days of CHBP is either faking it or is parachuting in for the glory of the festival’s finale. Day Three brings the 2013’s festival most widely known act to E Pike as global superstars and weirdos The Flaming Lips take the main stage Sunday night.

    CHS will again be roaming the Block Party to see what’s up and what’s going down. You can follow @jseattle on Twitter for notes as we hear about them. Let us know what you see, too. You can email us or call/txt (206) 399-5959.

    CHS CHBP 2013 | Day One | Day Two

    • Every year of Block Party, locals are wont to lament the changing nature of the event — and those who attend it. CHS intern Sam Heft-Luthy reports, as you might expect, a diversity of opinions inside the fences. One police officer on Day Two said SPD “worked a little harder (Friday) night than in other years,” but hasn’t noticed a rowdier CHBP in 2013.Most CHBP staff Sam talked with said that they don’t think this year has been any different than past years. “The crowd so far has been pretty mellow so far,” said one security employee.

      Continue reading →