This Sunday we had not one, but two musical events on North Beacon Hill: the summer’s first Beacon Rocks!, followed by The Station’s First Anniversary party. Here are a few photos of those events from the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.
I’d like to give very special thanks to Dan Bennett for posting a bunch of great photos of the Station event, which the BHB was unable to attend. There are many more photos in the pool; please check them out!
Along with performances from Beacon Hill musicians and artists, The Station coffee house will be hosting a beer garden and food vending on the adjacent El Centro de la Raza grounds. After Beacon Rocks! is The Station’s First Anniversary Party, featuring more local hip hop and rock music from 5pm until dusk.
Chairs and/or blankets are recommended to sit on. Remember that the Festival Street is a paved site.
June 26 schedule, with descriptions courtesy of Beacon Rocks!:
There is a $10 suggested donation, and if checks are made out to Shunpike, donors will receive tax-deductible receipts.
To attend (and find out the party’s location), RSVP to beaconrocks@gmail.com.
The Beacon Rocks! performance events themselves this summer will be June 26, July 31, and August 28 on the Roberto Maestas Festival Street (formerly Lander) just north of Beacon Hill Station. Stay tuned for further information.
Local organizations Beacon Hill Music and ROCKiT Space, who have worked closely together in the past, have merged. Here’s a message they sent us about the change:
Beacon Hill Music and ROCKiT Space are merging. Last year ROCKiT Space teamed up with Beacon Hill Music to bring you “Beacon Rocks!” Now we are merging to continue building programs for families on Beacon Hill. ROCKiT Space is an all-volunteer-powered arts non-profit striving to create space for community in our lives through the creative arts. We will continue to work closely with The North Beacon Hill Council; they will be a co-sponsor of all our Beacon Rocks events, generously providing permitting and insurance for those events. So “Beacon Hill Music” and “ROCKiT Space” now are interchangeable when it comes to putting on musical activities on Beacon Hill (we’ll sort out the naming as we go along).
Who Is Beacon Hill Music?
Beacon Hill Music is a group of Beacon Hill residents who love music and would love to see a whole lot more music (and dance) happening on Beacon Hill. We are excited about Beacon Hill having the first festival street in Seattle, the “Lander Festival Street” (the block just north of the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station). Now, as part of ROCKiT Space, we want to continue to use the Festival Street as a performance space and we are branching out to other activities such as the Beacon Hill Music Songwriters Circle, coordinating music for the Beacon Hill Festival, etc.
If you have questions, suggestions, or would like to join in the fun of putting these events on, email us at beaconrocks@gmail.com.
We also want to give some advance notice of two Thursday evening events scheduled for April 7. At 5:30 p.m., neighbor Tess Martin will be hosting a neighborhood mixer at The Station, 2533 16th Ave. S. All are welcome. Come meet your neighbors and enjoy an extended Happy Hour or just some coffee. Then at 7 p.m., head over to the Beacon Hill Library a couple of blocks away for the monthly meeting of the North Beacon Hill Council. Stay tuned to the blog for information on this month’s NBHC meeting agenda.
Tonight is your first of three chances to show you rock, at this year’s Beacon Rocks! auditions for musicians and performers. The live audition for individuals or groups will be at Kusina Filipina, 3201 Beacon Avenue South, tonight from 8-11 p.m. See our earlier post for more info.
Perhaps you prefer to get your hands dirty. On Sunday, you can do that at one of two community work parties. The Lewis Park work party is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lewis Park, 12th Avenue South and Golf Drive South. Help plant native plants or do other things the park needs. Tools, gloves, water, and refreshments are provided. This is a weekly event.
Also on Sunday, there is a community planting party from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Beacon Avenue South and South Forest Street, to remove the existing clover and plant a perennial garden on the planting strips there. See our recent post for more information.
On Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., ROCKiT space is hosting the ROCKiT Relaunch Community Potluck at the Garden House, 2336 15th Avenue South. It’s free—just bring food and come socialize with your neighbors!
As always, check the events calendar for more upcoming events on Beacon Hill.
Beacon Rocks! is a free all-volunteer outdoor music series held at the Beacon Hill Festival Street next to Beacon Hill Station. All styles of music and performance are welcome at these family-friendly, “Beacon Hill-centric” community events—you may rock, but you don’t have to play rock! There will be three shows this summer, on the last Sunday of June, July, and August.
The series is presented by Beacon Hill Music, “a community group formed to promote music, musicians and fans of music in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.”
The postponed-due-to-the-week-long-library-closure September North Beacon Hill Council Meeting is happening this Thursday at 7pm in the Beacon Hill Library Community Room. Everyone is welcome, and if you’ve been to at least one meeting, you’re eligible to vote!
The agenda as posted on the NBHC website with some added emphasis:
- 7:00 Introductions and Welcome
- 7:05 Allison Schwartz, Transportation Planner, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and Mike Podowski, Planner, Department of Planning and Development (DPD) will give an update on light rail station area parking and get feedback on the Restricted Parking Zones – how are they working for us. Q & A follows five minute presentations by each.
- 7:40 City Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Chair, Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods Committee: CC member O’Brien’s City Council Committee will be making a decision this month on the Neighborhood Plan as presented by DPD; he has asked for this opportunity to receive neighborhood feedback. Mike will also be soliciting members for the Action Teams which are forming to implement the Neighborhood Plan.
- 8:10 Neighborhood updates
- Beacon Rocks
- Beacon Hill Business Association
- Nomination of new North Beacon Hill Council Board Member
- Resignation accepted from Shelly Bates, Board Member – thank you so much, Shelly, for all you have done for us!
- Other announcements, events
- 8:30 Executive Board Meeting (open to all, however only Board Members are allowed to speak and take any needed votes. If you choose to leave at this time, it’s understood!)
- Election of new board member(s)
- Updates on plans made at the August Board Social meeting
As always, the event is free to all (we suggest bringing chairs or blankets to sit on, maybe umbrellas, sunscreen, etc.).
The performers at this weekend’s show include:
YAAMBA Marimba: YAAMBA Marimba are a group of musicians who enjoy playing Zimbabwean music and other music driven by a rhythmic beat on marimba and mbira. They’ve been playing together since the 1980s.
Glenn Bell Band: Glenn Bell is a Seattle musician who hails from Philly. His self-released debut LP, Slide, is a dose of all-American story telling in the context of rock/pop melodies, in the mold of Springsteen and James McMurtry.
Splinter Dance Company: Splinter Dance Company’s repertoire ranges in styles from hip-hop and breakdance, to lyrical, salsa, and jazz.
The Colour Project: The Colour Project is a Seattle-based electronic rock duo, formed in 2010 by Jessie McKenna and Mark Chrisman. They combine drum beats, guitar, synthesizer, textured loops and melody.
Jessie McKenna: Original melodic pop/rock.
Red Heart Alarm: Red Heart Alarm is a “Gruntry” band hailing from Seattle, WA. They’ve coined the term for their sound, which marries their native city’s Grunge legacy with the melodic twang of classic Americana/Roots music. The result of this experimentation is their recently released debut album White Elephants.
Naugahyde: a two piece rock set – percussion, Theren Hayes and guitar/vocals, Jeff Wendland.
Deception Pass: a local youth rock band including Ian, Finn, Anders and Raphi who created the group in 2007 when the members were in fifth grade at Kimball Elementary.
Zumba: West African dance and exercise demonstrations by Carol.
Excuse You: original adult contemporary rock.
Blue55: blues, R&B, and “vintage rock and roll with a garage band feel and attitude.”
Kevin Gibbons: calls himself a “hack songwriter,” but the Beacon Rocks! people say “he’s actually a ‘really good songwriter.'”
The Middle Age Crisis Band: “a hard pumping, fun and punkish/J-pop style band that plays all original music (sometimes in Japanese).”