Silver Room Block Party set for July 16th & 17th

The Silver Room Sound System Block Party returns July 16-17 at Oakwood Beach. The event will include music, arts and culture. PHOTO PROVIDED BY ERIC WILLIAMS.
The Silver Room Sound System Block Party returns July 16-17 at Oakwood Beach. The event will include music, arts and culture. PHOTO PROVIDED BY ERIC WILLIAMS.

Silver Room Block Party set for July 16th & 17th
By Tia Carol Jones
The Silver Room Sound System Block Party is back after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19.  It is taking place in a new location. The event will take place from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, July 16th, and 17th, at Oakwood Beach, located at 39th and Lake Michigan.

This is the 17th year for the event, which started as a gathering on the North Side of the City with a couple hundred people, has grown to thousands of people attending. It has become a premier event on the South Side that people look forward to every summer.

People kept asking Eric Williams, owner of the Silver Room, if the event was coming back. The event brings people together, using art, culture and music. Williams believes it is something that is much needed after not having the event the last couple of years. The theme of the event is “Back Together Again.”

In past years, the event was located on 53rd Street, and with the growth of the event, that location wasn’t feasible, so it has been moved to Oakwood Beach this year.

“The last time we did it, I felt like it was to a point at capacity.  For safety reasons, for health reasons, I thought if we did it again at the same location, it just wouldn’t work and it would be way too many people and we had to figure something else out,” Williams said.

Williams wanted to keep the event on the South side and wanted to be able to charge. Also, Oakwood Beach provides a beautiful background for the event.

After 16 years, the Block Party is charging for the tickets. The event in previous years was funded by the Silver Room and Williams, with a couple of sponsors.

“I look at it this time as we’re all coming together to make it happen, it’s not just Silver Room doing it, it’s not just me doing it, it’s the community collectively coming together, putting the money together to have a really beautiful event,” Williams said.

The event will include music and arts, as it has in year’s past. This year will have a health and wellness pavilion, with Lululemon. There will be four stages, two stages with live music and two stages with DJs, and a kids area. With a lot more space, there will be more activations. One will be a design pavilion.

Norman Teague, owner of Norm’s Bistro, said the design pavilion came about because people have been thinking more about design and how it is moving to the forefront.

“I think design needs to be highlighted just a little bit more. As an educator, professor at UIC, I find that there is such a low ratio of Black, young designers present,” Teague said. “ We really wanted to highlight some of the designers who are present here in Chicago and have them talk about their works, but also curate a show that people can walk through and while they’re taking a break from dancing, they can check out a fashion show, or they can come over and check out some designed objects, and a number of artists and designers from Chicago will be present to talk about the work they have.”

Teague added, the push for exposing design really comes down to thinking about how neighborhoods in Chicago are going through major changes and how people can start to elevate the amount of designers there are in Black communities.

There also will be basketball activations, volleyball, double dutch, murals and muralists. The vendor area will include 70 vendors and 30 food vendors, which will include vegan, vegetarian and other foods from all parts of the city. Williams described it as a “whole campus of goodness.”

Musical performances include Hannibal Burress, Liv Warfield, DJ Ron Trent, Joey Purp, Bonita Appleblunt, Body and Soul NYC, Madison McFerrin and Edith Yokley.

Tickets cost $50 for a single day pass, $90 for a weekend pass and children younger than 13 are free, when accompanied by an adult. To purchase tickets, visit silverroomblockparty.com.

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