Capitol Hill Block Party formally canceled for 2021

You can officially unsave the date.

Capitol Hill Block Party never really seemed “on” this year, as the usual spring period when the lineup rolls out and early bird tickets go on sale quietly came and went. Seattle Theatre Group’s fledgling THING fest had already thrown in the towel on 2021, and Northwest Folklife had announced plans to go virtual. But there was relative silence on the Hill.

Despite no real signs of a 2021 comeback, Block Party brass formally announced on May 10 — days before Gov. Jay Inslee unveiled a statewide June 30 reopening date — that the show would not go on as planned in July. Any ticket holders still holding out hope for this season’s Pike Street bash, which draws around 10,000 people per day, would be refunded, organizers wrote in the announcement.

“Unfortunately we still have no direction for what a 2021 festival season could look like from the city or state,” organizers wrote. “While we are optimistic about the fall season for live music, we cannot plan a proper CHBP for July 2021.”

While the governor’s reopening announcement paved the way for full-capacity concerts to return by July, if not earlier, concert calendars had largely been cleared through July already. The first major Washington festival still on the docket is Watershed, the annual country fete at the Gorge Amphitheatre that typically draws sellout crowds. As of now, the three-day fest headlined by Tim McGraw, Dierks Bentley and Thomas Rhett is on for July 30-Aug. 1.

While some parts of the country are reopening faster, most major tours aren’t slated to wind through Washington until September at the earliest.