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Do you need to register for a table at the event? Or will you perform? Maybe display and sell your art? Register Here!

The Pre-Game Block pARTy was founded in 2002 to showcase the arts on campus, encourage creativity, and offer football fans pre-game fun.  Since then, the Block pARTy has grown into one of Lafayette’s favorite annual traditions.  In 2010, more than 900 students attended the event, along with employees, alumni, family, friends, and football fans.  The pARTy is held on Parson Street, the home of the Arts Houses, right across from the Fisher Stadium entrance. Almost two dozen student organizations engage pARTygoers in free participatory arts-themed fun, such as a giant magnetic poetry board, hair braiding, a graffiti wall, henna tattoos, sand art, custom buttons, photos in traditional Japanese dress, coffee-bean candles, notebooks and art made from recycled materials, custom beaded bracelets, karaoke, face painting, photo frames, spin art, and personalized stenciled t-shirts.  Ten of the student groups have participated in seven Block pARTies. Performances include student dance groups and musicians—singer/songwriters, drumming groups, a cappella ensembles, folk music—along with showcases of international performance traditions and the traditional spirit-rousing visit of the Pep Band to lead the crowd from pARTy to game. An average of nine student performance groups a year showcase their talents on the Block pARTy stage. Student artists have displayed and sold work in many media, including paintings, drawings, photography, silk-screened scarves, polymer clay sculpture, and hand-crafted jewelry. Other attractions have included a free raffle, a strolling magician, Portraits with the Pard, a balloon artist, free caricatures, free Rita’s Water Ice and food from local vendors (such as Quadrant Coffeehouse, Fat Daddy’s Southern Bar-B-Q, Forks Mediterranean Deli, the Bombay Grill, and Almond Tree). Sponsored by seven different campus constituencies, the Block pARTy is an outstanding example of cooperation, collaboration, and participation by many campus groups to produce a creative, entertaining, and successful annual event! In the past, funding sources have included Athletics, Dean of Students, LINC, Residence Life, Recreation Services, Arts Society & Student Government.