After a brief hiatus, Orange County’s favorite free event is back with a packed agenda.
East End Block Party is a free event in Saturday, June, 11th with a main stage with about 20 musicians. It will take place from Noon til 10 p.m. The Santa Ana event is returning for the 7th edition
Bands Include: B.I.G. F.U.N., Levitation Room, WEB, Bash Dogs, 3LH, Shock Therapy
The first 100 people will get a free T-shirt. From 4pm – 8pm, Gus’s World Famous Chicken will be giving out 100 free pieces of chicken every hour. There will be a pop-up skate area, a classic car show will be running til sunset, then a b-boy dance stage. This year will feature the first East End Block Party Beer Garden. Also vendors, an art alley for visitors to watch live muralists.
(photos by Nadya Diaz)
Tyson Pruong, the event coordinator since the first East End Block Party, added more experiences this year, like a festival beer garden.
. . .
When I met Tyson in 4th Street Market, he wore a hat that said “Street Poetry is my Everyday.” Despite falling asleep at 7 a.m., he beat me to our meeting at noon the same day. It’s a week before East End Block Party 2022, and as the event approaches, the less sleep he gets. Tyson showed me the office he works from, a narrow hallway like room without a window. On the right hand side, there are two-palettes worth of Liquid Death, one of this years sponsors; the left side is about 300 vintage clothes he resells for fun. It takes him back to working at the flea market with his family as a kid.
Tyson Pruong on the right (photo by Eduardo Ponce)
Tyson has been in the Santa Ana event industry for about 14 years, starting at Yost Theater as club promoter. This is where he was able to meet people to start an art collective of artists, musicians, fashion designers, anyone who was creative and ambitious enough to open up opportunities for each other.
Santa Ana is Tyson’s home town, when he started getting into the event industry he was 19 years old.
“When I first came down here [Downtown Santa Ana], there was nothing but pay-to-plays and gallery owners who would take at least 70% of your profits. And I wanted to create a free platform, a free show where artists could come and perform, or get paid to perform.”
As Konsept, his non-profit, grew he used these event opportunities to give back to the community from organizing Food Drives, Toy Drives, Water Drives. It was these events that help Tyson and his family when he was a kid. “If it wasn’t someone being able to give me that toy on Christmas when my family couldn’t afford one. I wouldn’t have known what it felt like to that kid.”
(photos by Nadya Diaz)
“The reason we were able to do that, is ‘cause this city is built on art.”
Santa Ana is undoubtedly the art and culture hub for Orange County, a grassroots movement in the land of suburbs. “When I first got here, it was starting to bloom,” said Tyson. He does not take credit for any of it, he was able to learn from the other promoters around him to keep the movement going. “The reason we were able to do that, is ‘cause this city is built on art.”
Santa Ana is one of the oldest cities in California, the 13th biggest city in the state. In 1994, the city along with help from community activist Don Cribb and Cal State Fullerton’s Gallery Director Mike McGee, Santa Ana opened the doors to the Artist Village attracting artists to fuel the cultural hub. This shifted Downtown Santa Ana, from a struggling community to an emerging grassroots scene.
It’s the deep well of history and the dense latino population that opened it to the arts. The creativity amongst our young folks here and how we were raised in the tight knit communities. We needed an escape and art was that escape for a lot of us,” said Tyson.
The first iteration of a community music festival took place inside 4th Street Market before the restaurants moved in. Then Tyson formed it into the East End Block Party. This year will be the first time the city of Santa Ana will be sponsoring the event. All previous East End Block Party’s were thrown with local fundraising. This year the city recognized the importance of this event, not only to the community but to the local businesses.
East End Block Party 2022 is special, they missed out on a couple years due to the pandemic. Getting the gears to move again for this arts & cultural machine hasn’t been easy, explains Tyson: “You got to make sure you find ways, when you stress what is your rebuttal? Are you going to sink and fold on the work you do? Or are you going to come with a straight mind, creating solutions to those problems.”
