Capitol Hill Block Party is back to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the beloved music festival! Taking over the Pike and Pine Street corridor from Broadway to 12th Street, the festival always brings an eclectic mix of big-name artists and local, hometown favorites. Featuring a variety of stages and a concrete dance floor, CHBP is perfect for the city folk who enjoy getting down and dirty in the streets.
This year the lineup includes a super diverse group of artists who range from experimental indie rockers to smooth crooning R&B singer/songwriters. In previous years, it was obvious that hip-hop was a prominent genre within the lineup. However, for this year, there did seem to be a much smaller number of hip-hop artists on the bill and a definite underrepresentation of rappers overall.
Although I’ve seen and heard many people comment on a “lack of local representation,” there are quite a bit of Northwest-based artists spread throughout the weekend. I spent an extraordinary amount of time listening through all the artists and have highlighted some of the artists that I’m excited to see this year.
Once the daily set times come out, I’ll take the time to find what sets I want to go to and put notifications in my calendar for each one that way my phone will remind me, and I won’t miss anything! This is one of the best ways to make the most out of large festivals with multiple stages. If you’re going with a group of friends, it’s also helpful to make an individual itinerary with who you want to see and share that with your friends, that way if y’all split up you know roughly where your friends will be at certain times.
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Friday’s Lineup
The first day is always fun, people are always excited because it’s the start of the festival, friends start to form their tribes for the weekend and people explore the grounds and final lineups which include all of the smaller side stages. It’s also the end of the work week, for most, which means letting the hair down and getting loose. In my experience, Fridays usually aren’t too chaotic crowd-wise and are usually one of the most exciting days of the weekend.
Headlining on Friday is Sofi Tukker. This Florida music duo took the world by storm after being found on Soundcloud in 2015. Since then, they’ve been nominated for awards and have worked their names into homes all around the world. Another rising artist who really took off in recent years is Channel Tres. I actually saw him at the Showbox back in December of 2022, and I’m not lying when I say it was one of the best live performances that I had ever seen. Those two aside, I think the real star of Friday’s lineup is the queen of getting down on a Friday- Rebecca Black.
Looking at the local talent, stand out names for me are alté, hip-hop, dance babe Taylar Elizza Beth, Seattle-based rock and roll band Acid Tongue, dreamy R&B singer Daizha, as well as Lightweight Champion, a band that calls themselves indie rock and y’allternative.
Saturday’s Lineup
Saturday is when things really ramp up. Most people don’t have to work before the festivities begin, a lot of folks are ready to spend the day drinking in the sunshine and pretty much everybody is ready to party all night long. Denzel Curry is back on the lineup for Block Party after having to cancel last minute in 2019. This year, he’ll be the headlining artist for the Saturday night lineup.
Also performing during the second night will be a singer/songwriter from Toronto who goes by Renforshort, Washington’s own Samurai Del, the sweet and sour punk band Lemon Boy, hip-hop, R&B, and dance pop artist Chrvns as well as rising Seattle artist Crissy P and R&B songstress Talaya.
Sunday Lineup
Closing out the weekend will be one of my favorite lineups of the festival. Sunday features big names like Louis the Child, Pink Pantheress and Rico Nasty. As well, an incredible lineup of locals will grace various stages around the festival, including Fluencie, Samara Lennoxx, Brujita XO and Portland’s Karma Rivera.
Sunday is always the calmest day of the whole festival. Even though the energy is super high it doesn’t compare to that of Friday and Saturday. Usually this is the day where most weekenders are feeling the exhaustion, they’re usually hungover from the previous night and sun drunk to the point of near delusion.
Thankfully, the way the festival grounds are set up, you have almost endless possibilities for places to rehydrate and gather yourself. You are allowed to bring in an empty reusable water bottle to fill up at their water station to stay hydrated all weekend. The Coca Cola Boombox will be stocked with cold drinks, and VIP sponsor Celcius will have free energy drinks at their booth outside of the Comet Tavern. On top of that, the ZenFlow tent will be providing IV therapy infusions packed with vital nutrients, minerals and electrolytes to keep you powered up all weekend.
Take Care at Capitol Hill Block Party
Capitol Hill Block Party puts a big emphasis on taking care of yourself, so much so that they have a variety of different wellness partners this year to keep you feeling good mentally, physically, and even spiritually.
At the Awaken Yourself tent, you can check out some high-quality cleansing tools and crystals, and you can learn about holistic health in general. This Must Be the Place, a team of people who travel to educate the country about the fentanyl epidemic, will be helping keep festival goers safe by providing free doses of Naloxone and test strips. As well, there is an entire food truck court setup with a variety of different options to satiate your hunger with, on top of the local restaurants that are within and surrounding the festival grounds.
Altogether, this year is shaping up to be an interesting, diverse, and eclectic lineup full of surprises from one day to the next. I will, of course, get my annual Bok a Bok meal for dinner on Friday (a three-piece chicken strip with tots and a Berry Lemonade Jones Soda), a scoop of ice cream at sunset on Saturday, and lots of tequila on Sunday. Ultimately, my goal every year for Capitol Hill Block Party is to end up feeling carefree while dancing in the middle of the street while I feel the pulse of the beat and feed off of the energy of the community around me.
