The annual Block Party of 2023 was met with much anticipation, evident from student responses to ASPB’s first Instagram post revealing the hyped lineup. With DJ Lex hosting, the featured artists were R&B talents Jordan Ward and Tinashe, the fiery EDM artist Knock2 and the headliner Ski Mask the Slump God, the master of rap ridiculousness. The popular beginning-of-school event is most known for its electric atmosphere of the students in the crowds. Added features included food trucks, attractions, photo opportunities and much more.
This year, Block Party celebrated its 25th anniversary with a well-received setlist and plenty of hype from students. The excitement for the event stemmed from the successful marketing on social media. The decision to riff off of the incredibly successful “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was genius, with the event’s advertising art centered around dynamic warm color palettes and impressive hexagonal designs. While Block Party had plenty of success, especially with its choice of artists and crowd control, it did face minor complications as well.
Line
Unsurprisingly, students had started lining up to the event early with the eager front attendees being there at least 4 hours before the event opened its doors at 4:00 p.m. The line snaked around the courtyard between the Student Success Center and the Humanities and Social Sciences building. Despite fears of front-cutting from other students, this was avoided for the most part. With plenty of security guards placed throughout the line and ASPB members walking around to keep it checked, it would’ve been difficult for anyone to cut the line.
By 3:44 pm the line moved up to the security check and final preparations were made to open the doors. Despite a late start, the line moved smoothly in, with security and ASPB swiftly moving the waiting crowd into the venue starting at 4:22 p.m. Students did not have to endure any unnecessary wait due to this efficient movement.
Merchandise
At the start of the event, students excitedly rushed over to merchandising to obtain free shirts and hoodies sporting the event art and lineup. Located by the Bell Tower, the line got longer as more students started entering the venue. Snaking around established stations and all the way to the stairs of the Bell Tower from the lawn, the line grew to a devastating 30 to 45-minute wait for exclusive Block Party merchandise. While students waited in line, some ASPB staff members were passing out snacks from one of their sponsors, Takis, for them to snack on.
After about an hour since letting the students into the event, the booth ran out of merchandise, and students still waiting were forced to disperse from the line. This left many disappointed and frustrated despite some coming to the event hours early and still being unable to beat the rush of others fiending for the merchandise. As mentioned by disappointed students of the incident, the line was hectic and “all over the place.” Sanya Aul, a first-year biology major, discussed how much she wished to have gotten something since she and her friends were standing for about half an hour in line. She suggested that ASPB can maybe let people know how many items they have left so that it doesn’t keep people waiting in line. Another idea that could assist in that endeavor would be using a clicker to count where the line should end.
Amenities
Alongside the quest for merchandise, other amenities that attracted concert goers were the food and attractions. The notable food trucks consistently holding large lines were Cali Caribbean, Seoulmates and Burning Buns. Another fun attraction at the start was a giveaway station hosted by DoorDash where students could win prizes.
Whilst students were enjoying amenities, DJ Lex set the ambiance with RnB classics like “Get You” by Daniel Caesar and “Nights Like This” by Kehlani feat. Ty Dolla $ign. She also played recent hits such as “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” by PinkPantheress and Ice Spice and “Super Shy” by NewJeans. DJ Lex then handed the stage to the first performer, Jordan Ward.
Artist Performances
Starting off the event, Jordan Ward struggled to find the energy in his performance; his R&B music was met with a cold audience. With his many attempts to raise the energy of the concert, the nature of Ward’s songs worked against him as the nature of his music felt more sentimental and mellow. His best tracks, “WHITE CROCS” by him and Ryan Trey, and his ending song “FAMJAM4000,” were not enough to get any rise out of the disinterested, dead crowd. Although, admittedly, during a majority of his set, students were either still barely entering or exploring the venue, resulting in a comparatively smaller crowd. Regardless of these setbacks, Ward gave a great performance showing comfortability with his warm audience interactions and his ability to smoothly dance and move around the stage, showing confident stage presence.
The next artist, however, lifted the crowd up from the cold lull as Knock2 lit fire under them with his thrilling performance. Preluded by DJ Lex’s own EDM mix, Knock2 came in hard with his signature bass house hits, reenergizing the audience. His pieces like “MAKE U SWEAT!” and “gettin’ hot,” were all head-bangers, whipping UCR students into jumping frenzies. Harmoniously, Knock2 would incorporate his softer, remixed songs to allow listeners to breathe before again electrifying them with hard transitions back into his EDM. He surprised fans by not only dropping his Fred again x SHM remix but also bringing ISOxo out during his set. The crowd was a big fan of Knock2 as it got them jamming to the music and hype for the best type of energy.
What did occasionally break the energy was when Knock2 had to stop his performance multiple times to warn the crowd of pushing each other, even stating, “Yo, the energy is too f***ing crazy.” While Knock2’s set did run longer than usual, he still managed to steal the show by keeping the energy up and playing music that got people jumping and headbanging. ASPB also started to hand out light sticks to the crowd to throw at beat drops and transitions.
When asked about their favorite set, fourth-year Taylor Cabael alongside his three friends all said Knock2. He explained how Knock2 “creating his own brand by himself kind of creates almost like this environment of people and a lot of those people end up having such a good community… [simply] enjoying his music. It makes it really good.”
Tinashe was another one of the big names for Block Party as people were excited to see her perform. She was an intimate pick for the lineup, and her performance was a sensually choreographed R&B showcase with her slower songs swaying the crowd. With her more poplike songs like “2 On” and “X,” Tinashe delivered a solid show. She put on a great performance by interacting with the crowd, as well as incorporating her talented dance moves alongside her more upbeat songs. Unfortunately, her mic was cut off which ended her set abruptly. However, during the time she was on stage and her mic was off, she continued to impress the crowd with her dance moves and put on an exciting performance.
Headlining the entire concert was the crazy uncle of rap, Ski Mask the Slump God. Preluded by DJ Scheme, Ski performed his best hits in Stokely like “Faucet Failure” and “Nuketown.” Ski started off his set with a bang that instantly got the crowd vibing to his music. With his songs imbued with his dizzying flow of absurd rhymes, Ski was able to emanate constant energy. And it definitely helped that the audience knew and sang his songs, revealing and solidifying him as a crowd favorite alongside Knock2. The UCR crowd even got to enjoy a few unreleased tracks from his upcoming album.
His performance was unfortunately thorned by his need to constantly remind the audience to stop pushing their peers to the front and crushing one another. Additionally, Ski would fail an attempt to jump into the crowd for them to catch him during “Nuketown,” leading to DJ Scheme yelling at the audience and a lengthy rescue mission for the rapper.
A solemn highlight of Ski’s performance was his dedicated songs to the late XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD. Ski would perform his close friends’ songs like “Jocelyn Flores” and “SAD!” by XXXTentacion and “Legends” by Juice WRLD with Ski pointing to the sky while performing “SAD!”.
Reception from Interviews
All together, students seemed to have a great experience at the 2023 Block Party. The event for Rachit Shah, a 4th-year political science major, marks the 3rd Block Party that he has been to and he states “With this Block party, I knew a couple of names like Ski Mask and Tinashe and I was really excited to see them. It was a good experience and I reconnected with a lot of my friends from last year.” 1st-year music major Gavin Maneon gave a confident yes when asked if his first Block Party met his expectations and said, “It was fun, it was exciting. It’s my first time doing a concert-related event.”
Verdict: Barring some minor setbacks, the 25th Block party was a great start to the new school year. With new and continuing students leaving with good experiences, UCR students should look forward to the next events.
