Our First-Ever Block Party — Celebrating 125 Years
Let’s celebrate the Racine Public Library’s 125th year in Racine! On Saturday, July 16, Lake Avenue will close for the library to celebrate its first-ever Block Party. The event will feature a day full of entertainment — we’ve got live music, dance performances, a great selection of food trucks and vendors, and more.
Block Party and Library Hours
The Block Party runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m on Lake Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets, as well as the circle of Library Drive and the walkway connecting the two streets. Traffic will be closed on this stretch of Lake Avenue from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The library and Bookmobile will be open for their normal Saturday hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The book drops in the circle of Library Drive will be inaccessible during the event, but patrons can still bring returns into the library building.
Block Party Shows
Stop by our full-sized stage to watch live musicians, dancers and other performers!
- Duke Otherwise, 10 to 11 a.m. — Children’s performance
- The Racine International Folk Dancers, 11 a.m. to noon — Dance performance
- Happy Birthday to the Library, 1:10 p.m.
- Sweatshop Movement, 1:30 to 2 p.m. — Dance performance
- Georgia Rae, 2:30 to 4 p.m. — Live music
- The Spirit Shakers, 4:30 to 6 p.m. — Live music
- La Perla Tapatia USA, 6 to 6:30 p.m. — Dance performance
- Indigo Canyon, 6:30 to 8 p.m. — Live music
Block Party Activities
From noon to 1 p.m., local historians Carol Burow Gianforte and Jim Mercier will present “The Library We Remember,” a talk on the history of our library and the surrounding Racine community.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Game Changers Car Club is showing 30 classic cars at the event. The Racine Heritage Museum‘s 1929 vintage Case car will be in attendance as well.
Throughout the day, the library’s digital services and innovation team will have 3D printing, laser engraving and robots to try. The library’s book bike and, later, Bookmobile will be present for you to browse. A selection of games you can check out from our Beyond Books Collection — including giant Connect Four, giant Jenga, giant Chess, and more — will be out for you to play. Stop by our dunk tank to take Trevor Jung, Nick Demske and other community members for a swim. And be sure to bring the kids by for our bounce house obstacle courses, carnival games and prizes, face painting, and more.
When you’re ready for a break, come into the library to cool off, sign up for a library card or pick out some books for Summer Reading.
Block Party Food
Food trucks and vendors will be serving up their specialties throughout the day. We’ll have tacos, burritos and tortas from Pico’s Tacos 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Jaramillo’s Home Cook’n from 4-8 p.m. Get yourself a pulled pork sandwich from Dragon Pit BBQ any time during the party. And if you’ve never tried elote or Mexican street corn, be sure to stop by The Corn King for a cup. Hot dogs and polish sausage will also be available from Dr. Dawg. Just looking for a snack? Grab some nachos, cotton candy or a snow cone! Round it all off with a beer or seltzer from the Friends of the Library beer tent, open from noon-8 p.m.
Early call for raffle tickets
Can’t wait to get in on the Friends of the Racine Public Library‘s Taste of Racine raffle basket? We’re selling tickets in the first-floor lobby of the library!
One ticket: $3
Two tickets: $5
Five tickets: $10
Valued at $250. Final drawing at Block Party at 7:30 p.m.
And more!
Also be sure to stop by our 30+ booths from local vendors, organizations and businesses, including the Racine Theatre Guild, the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network, Lilybelle Bows, Mystical Baubles and Flames and more. Sign up for a library card, learn about resources in your community, and browse custom bookmarks, vintage goods, soaps, candles, paper products and other goods for purchase.
We also have raffles! Find the Racine Public Library team to try your hand at winning half the proceeds from our 50/50 raffle, or look for the Friends of the Racine Public Library to enter for their Taste of Racine basket.
There’s something for everyone at the block party, so we hope you come celebrate with us! We’re looking forward to seeing you and to our next 125 years in Racine. This celebration is sponsored by the Friends of the Racine Public Library, the Racine Public Library Foundation, Game Changers Car Club and ZMac Transportation.
Want to get involved? Volunteer for this event and beyond, make a donation, or learn more about the library’s 125th anniversary.
Would like to become a vendor…I have a Beauty Supply in Racine
Hi, Nina! Our vendor applications were scheduled to close as of last week, but if you’d like to double check, you can reach out to Julia Heiser and/or Evelin Garcia. (You can click on their names to open their emails.) Even if it doesn’t work out for this event, we’d love to see about getting you in for a future one.
Is there a map that shows where everything is located?
Hi, Katrina! We just had a few private maps for our event planning team, but I’m taking a note to suggest a public map to our planners for our next event. Thank you.