Bushwick’s annual block party is back June 1 with rapper and record exec Rick Ross scheduled to headline the daylong festival.
Ross will be joined by Statik Selektah and friends, DJ Evil Dee and other surprise guests, with performances and live street art starting at 10 a.m.
More than 40 street artists and graffiti writers from across the world will paint live on buildings surrounding the area. Last year, artists Hops1, Zaone, Sipros, Li-Hill, Mr. June, GIZ, Gondek, BKFoxx, Bisco Smith, FBoom, FKDL, El Cekis, Aquarela and others showed off their talents.
The block party also will host a large merchant market featuring street art, prints, jewelry and apparel for sale, as well as face and body painting and meet and greets with graffiti artists. There also will be a bike giveaway contest by the sponsor Nooklyn, an apartment-finding company.
The party is free, but those who pay for VIP access will have front stage access, access to a backstage beer garden with unlimited beer and cider, free swag and Perrier and access to a private restroom. VIP access is $80.
The event is the eighth installment of the Bushwick Collective Block Party, which was created by Joseph Ficalora, a Bushwick native and founder of the Bushwick Collective.
He created the Bushwick Collective, a nonprofit group of street artists, out of the need to do something for his neighborhood after his mother passed away from a brain tumor in 2011.
“The Collective’s artists are inspiring to be around," he told amNewYork last year. "This is all about the artists and their platform and doing what you love.”
If you go: The party will be held at Troutman Street and Scott Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 1.
You can take the L to the Jefferson Street station, or the M to the Myrtle-Wyckoff avenues subway station and walk northwest to the party.
Keep an eye on the Bushwick Collective’s Instagram for updates.
