Photo by Rebecca Smeyne for MTV Hive
As much as it pains me to say it, the Bushwick Block Party 2012 was pretty much a bust. It really DOES pain me to say it, since last year’s was so rad; but it’s the truth, and it’s what they need to hear if they’re going to be doing this next year. They stepped up their shit considerably, upgrading from a block party outside of where a pizzeria to a full-blown festival with Vans sponsoring and Andrew WK headlining. The problem was the growing pains that come with turning from something smaller and organic into a big-deal type of thing; the whole thing felt staid compared to how much FUN last year was. 30 minute lines for booths selling nothing less than $10, barricades around the block and security checking ID’s before letting people in…all the wack shit that comes with being “legit”.
Heems and Andrew WK were both killer, though; but then THIS bullshit goes down and left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth to close the night and remind them of the problems with the whole thing. People stayed, even despite the rain throughout the day, to see Andrew WK, and they cut him off in the middle of “Party Hard” rather than just letting him finish the song, pissing off everyone – and then they FORCIBLY REMOVED HIM from the stage (I wasn’t sure at the time if that was staged or not, but Symphony told me that where she was she could see security getting stoked that they actually could DO SOMETHING now. Whatever security that was, fuck only knows, but we’d never employ security that would fucking put their hands on the talent here, at least. Thass some unprofessional bullllllllllshit, and more importantly, uncool bullllllllllshit.) apparently he’d gone SEVEN WHOLE MINUTES overtime, and the NYPD said the whole thing had to be shut down. Yeah, fuck that.
Hopefully they run their shit better next time, because closing your festival with the sound of booing and “bullshit” chants generally isn’t a good look. Generally. For his part, Andrew WK handled it like a champ, but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t come back – he didn’t look pleased with the result, and I don’t think anyone else was, either.
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