What is your wildest block party story?

20 comments

1. We used to have them the first week of college when I went to a big university that has quite the reputation for partying. I saw people doing lines of what appeared to be and was probably cocaine off of a mirror 10 feet away from a police officer when I was 18 years old and the cop was just like “Jesus Christ….” and walked away shaking his head. That was quite a shock for me being away from home for my first ever weekend of college without my parents.

2. I’ve never lived on a fun enough street/block to have one. When I was growing up some neighboring blocks had them and they looked like a lot of fun. I was jealous. People on our block mostly kept to themselves except the few houses with kids my age.

   My neighborhood now does some low key stuff like having a food truck come every Friday evening, some fun kid stuff like easter egg hunts and halloween parades, and some other social gatherings, but I haven’t seen word of a block party yet. We could probably organize one if we wanted to though.

3. I’ve never lived anywhere that block parties were held even once, let alone a regular enough thing that I’d have stories of wild hijinks.

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5. My neighborhood throws a big block party every year; in fact, it’s one of the bigger events in my city. Every porch becomes a stage, all the venues and galleries are open, the bars and restaurants are packed.

   The year before the pandemic, it was truly astounding how many people were here. You could hardly move through the crowds and the streets were totally impassable. Things had been getting bigger gradually over the years, but this was like balls out crazy. I don’t live in a huge city and my neighborhood is mostly leafy streets with small old houses with a commercial area in the middle, but there were *thousands* of people here for the block party.

   By coincidence, I have a friend from a different state whose band was invited to play on one of the larger stages. After they played we had a small party at our house, which turned into kind of a rager – people just kept showing up. Fortunately we had a ton of beer.

   Also, for some reason, a bunch of our neighborhood cats decided this party would be a great hang-out spot, so all these cats just started appearing at our gate and several of them managed to get into our house, which had never happened before.

   This isn’t exactly a crazy story, but it was a wild night. When COVID started the block party got canceled and then they had a lot of trouble getting it properly started up again; this year and last it was much smaller, more informal, and more neighborhood-oriented. Which is cool I guess, but the gigantic rager was a lot of fun.

6. Never been to one. Didn’t live where there were blocks. I always thought that was just a tv thing anyways lol

7. My neighborhood is known for hosting a [24-hour bike race](https://www.riverwest24.com/) each year. Thousands of people participate (either by signing up for a team, or by volunteering at food/refreshment/entertainment tents), and the neighborhood basically turns into a giant party, with lots of live music, food, and costumes.

   You win by cycling through more neighborhood checkpoints than anyone else, and you can also earn extra points by tackling “side quests” at some of those checkpoints. For example, a [special event-centric tattoo](https://www.instagram.com/p/CvczMVGOWmXtXML1fbuRV_J4kXjkGvTSzip8AI0/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3228d460-2e36-4a28-81b5-a4d3ad448a5d) is unveiled each year, and you get more points if you let a local tattoo artist ink the design on you. It’s pretty wild.

8. We definitely had block parties in my NJ suburb as a kid but they were kid-friendly and not wild.

9. They were never crazy, just a fun day with music, fair type events and food at everyone’s house.

   While this not an official “block party” story, my parents would not let my brother and I go places when we were younger on Independence Day or New Year’s Day so we used to invite all of our friends over our house and as the years went by those got kind of wild. By the end of the night there was so much smoke and sulfur in the air from the fireworks you would think it was a war zone.

   One fourth of July we had SO, SO, SO much fireworks because everyone brought stuff that we just got bored at the end of he night, threw everything that was left regardless of what it was into a milk crate, doused it in lighter fluid, and set that on fire.

   16 oz rockets firing in all directions, m-80s and block busters exploding non-stop, full mats of jumping jacks, firecrackers and dozens of bottles rockets all going off at once.
   We melted a square in the street.

   Looking back that was pretty fucking stupid, but it was funny a the time.

   Best part was since my neighbor’s son was the commissioner of the Sanitation Dept street sweepers descended on our block first thing July 5th every year. street basically looked like nothing happened.

10. Nothing wild has ever happened to me at a block party. The only ones I’ve been to have been middle class suburban people mostly there to grill and listen to classic rock.

11. Lot of fun block parties, huge slip n slides, firework fights, fire breathers, closing off a street can really bring out a festive energy. More nostalgic than wild someone had built a stage for a live band and they just cranked out the music while everyone partied on around them.

12. My brother brought his parakeet with him in his pocket when we walked over. He was like, idk, 7 or 8

13. In Baltimore there’s this neighborhood called pigtown and it used to be a place where butchers kept their pigs. Now every year there is a block party slash festival and they block of the streets and put baby pigs on a race track! It’s very cute and all the neighborhood kids love it 😂

14. I had this happen when visiting a buddy in on base housing on an Army base down in Georgia. We we’re out drinking having fun and before you knew it half the block was in on it. It was great fun.

15. We have them, but they aren’t wild. Everyone brings food, we set up some games – volleyball or badminton. There’s music. Stuff for kids to do. Fun. Not wild.

16. I’ve never seen one.

17. I’ve never seen a block party.

18. They happen all the time here

    Some are meant for kids or at least there’s a vibe that seems conducive to bringing a family around with. They’ll have bouncy houses, funnel cake, fried Oreos, basic confectionaries, fried food, icee carts and things like that

    Others are more for adults. There most likely isn’t a permit for it and it’ll be at night. Lots of weed, lots of beer and booze, some will bring some booger sugar or molly for their own use or to make business. Usually people playing music out of their cars real loud or depending on the neighborhood their house into the street. Sometimes it turns into a big BBQ out on the street. At worst someone gets shot but I’ve had the good fortune of avoiding ones where stuff like that happens.

    Pretty much all I do at any party is find a nice place to post up, have a couple joints rolled up, a couple beers, maybe some booger sugar but I don’t go out getting into trouble. I just have a good time, meet some people, sometimes go see their apartment but that’s usual party stuff isn’t it?

19. School: Kid tried to chug a bottle of Jack and ended up snoring on the couch after 2 gulps.

    Local: Police showed up because a kid climbed a light post then smashed onto the concrete. Did not survive. Whoever did cleanup did not do a good job because you good see the splatter from his head on the street for a few days.

20. I can’t remember if this was a block party or not because we’d have some on our street but also big family parties of like 50-60 people. My uncle’s father was this quintessential quiet gent BUT … there was always a lot of drinking, A LOT of drinking.

    For anonymity, let’s say his name was Jones and he was the type of kindly old man that even the uncles, mom, dad, all the adults called “Mr.”

    Night rolls around. Where’s Mr Jones? Check the car, bathroom, bedroom, backyard — man. Where is he? Have you seen Mr. Jones? Nobody had. They searched for an hour or more. Eh, he’ll turn up. Somebody eventually takes some trash to the cans. Hey! Mr Jones!

    This was in the days of the old metal cans (think Oscar the Grouch) and ours at the time had a hinge so the lid would stay with the can. Turns out Mr. Jones had a few too many, felt sick, probably the bathrooms were occupied, walked out back, barfed in the can — he’s drunk and a frail old man, sooooo … he fell into the can passed out and the lid closed down on top of him.

    I’ve got dozens of stories like this from my childhood.