Capitol Hill Block Party organizers announced several additions to this year’s festival as well as a few programming changes that look to make the festival more of an arts and music event similar to Bumbershoot as opposed to strictly a three-day music binge.
Here are the music lineup additions:
Allen Stone // Beat Connection // Don’t Talk To the Cops // The Briefs // Gold Leaves // Grand Archives // Western Haunts // Battleme // Reignwolf // Imaginary Cities // Nouela // Ava Luna // Keyboard Kid // Spac3man // Helms Alee // Lesbian // Constant Lovers // Haunted Horses // Alicia Amiri
On the non-music programming note Block Party there will be an art gallery, family offerings, a video contest and live video and audio streaming from Chase Jarvis (who is streaming the video of select sets and “special content” online) and KEXP (which will be broadcasting from Barboza).
According to the information provided by a press release, it looks like the Caffe Vita Bean Room will no longer host the excellent, intimate KEXP sets that have been highlights of previous CHBPs. The release states that KEXP will be broadcasting “intimate performances” from Barboza which likely means the Bean Room sets are no more.
Last year the Bean Room was almost shut down by the fire department because it lacked a proper exit for the amount of people who packed the performances. The fire department was made aware of the possible fire hazard during a Bean Room performance by Head and the Heart that had people spilling out of the Bean Room and into the street. After that performance the capacity of the Bean Room was limited to 49 in order to comply with fire codes.
Back on the music programming side, Decibel Festival will be curating an after-party at Neumos Friday featuring a DJ set by Justin V of !!! and live sets by Miracles Club and Nordic Soul. The after parties will go until 3 a.m. at Neumos and Barboza. More Decibel Fest collaborations are expected to be announced soon.
Another change of note is that the Block Party is under new ownership this year. David Meinert and Marcus Charles sold the festival to Jason Lajeunesse who is part owner of Neumos, Moe Bar and several other local businesses.
Here’s info on the video contest, art gallery and the family offerings as pasted from the press release:
COMMUNITY FAMILY FUNFEST
CHBP and CupCake Royal will present a free family fun event on Sunday July 22 before the start of the festival from 10am-12pm. There will be free ice cream, lemonade and doubt dutch from 10-11am, followed by a free show at Neumos with Caspar Baby Pants from 11am-12pm. Local Capitol Hill business The Sweat Box will also host a free yoga class on Saturday morning from the CHBP main stage. The event is free and promises to be the perfect cure for your hangover and while keeping the kids entertained.
ALL-BROW VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM
Ghost Gallery’s Laurie Kearney is curating a collection of multimedia art to be viewed at this year’s CHBP. Installations by local and regional artists will be at specific locations throughout the festival grounds. Ghost Gallery’s mission for this project is to create a dynamic, visually striking art program for the CHBP, engaging festival-goers with an exciting variety of site-specific, locally made art. Laurie Kearney founded the Ghost Gallery project in 2006, with the goal of making original art more accessible by exhibiting artists in both traditional and non-traditional spaces. With 30,000 expected festival-goers, CHBP is the perfect non-traditional space for engaging our local artistic community and providing a dynamic, interactive environment for visitors of all ages. Additional installations and interactive activations will be provided by Capitol Hill resident creative agencies such as Digital Kitchen, World Famous, Dumb Eyes and Super Fad.TOTALLY STACKED VIDEO CONTEST
The CHBP will present “The Totally Stacked! Video Contest” In partnership with Seattle International Film Festival and The Stranger. Local filmmakers and amateur video directors will be invited to submit a video between 30 seconds and 2 minutes in length, incorporating the idea of Seattle Culture(bonus points for any use of the Space Needle) for the Totally Stacked! Video Contest. Entries will include all types of videos such as live action, animation, sound, etc. Videos are due by July 2nd and submissions will be judged by both film critics and the general public the following week. Totally Stacked curators Jen Graves (Arts Editor, The Stranger), Carl Spence (Artistic Director, Seattle International Film Festival) and Rock Hushka (Tacoma Art Museum) along with local film critics will vote for their favorites as part of the Critics Choice at the 170-person SIFF Film Center. The public will view all submissions and vote for their favorites on paper ballots onsite during the screen at the 500-person SIFF Cinema Uptown. This viewing will be open to the public for a $5 entry fee. Dates, deadlines, rules, submission information and prizes are available athttp://capitolhillblockparty.com/visual-art/totally_stacked/
