On Sunday, April 26 from noon through 4 p.m., WOBC-FM 91.5 will host their annual Block Party at Oberlin’s Park Street Park. Now in its third year in its current form, the event regularly draws hundreds of attendees from both the College and the town, all hoping to try out the bouncy house, get their hands on free cotton candy and hamburgers, or stop by the advice booth run by All Things Great owner Laurel, who always dresses as Lucy from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. To get some insight into what it takes to put on an event of this magnitude and what it means to both students and the community, I spoke with Anika Roos, one of the WOBC Outreach co-directors, and Max Newman of Sloth, one of the bands performing at this year’s Block Party.
Outreach is in charge of planning most of WOBC’s events, including the recently-debuted Radio Prom that will now be put on every fall after its first occurrence last November. Block Party, however, is Roos’ crowning achievement over their three years as an Outreach director. The first Block Party was held in 2010, but the tradition was left behind in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Roos said. When they and the rest of the Outreach team were tasked with bringing it back in 2024, enough time had passed that the workgroup “had to figure it all out [themselves] … the institutional knowledge was gone.”
The first year consisted of a lot of brainstorming, finding contacts for certain rentals, and figuring out how to navigate the complex bureaucracy behind securing the necessary permits, which Roos said was both overwhelming and entirely worthwhile. “We really do rely on the knowledge we’ve rebuilt over the past three years. We’ve kept all our budgets, permits, and forms — it’s a lot of documents in one big shared drive. It takes a lot of organization to be able to drive this and juggle multiple people working on multiple things at once.”
With this foundation in place, though, Roos and the other directors have focused their efforts on making the Block Party “bigger and better than ever” after that first year. Perhaps the most impressive difference this spring can be seen in the diverse setlist and the sheer number of organizations scheduled to table.
Roos said that in the past, most of the bands have been made up largely of upperclassmen from the College. This year, they’ve managed to secure two professor acts, a number of community DJs, and an improv rock band from Lorain, who one of Roos’ co-directors met through their Winter Term internship. As the Outreach workgroup has grown in popularity and the longtime members have forged deeper relationships with local talent, their process has been refined. “When we first started, it was just whatever bands and organizations that we could get. But now, I think it’s become an established event, and we get to be more intentional,” Roos said.
Beyond the different approach to curating their setlist, this year’s Block Party looks to expand on their outreach from the past two years. They’ve had a sort of partnership with Oberlin’s Bike Co-op since the Block Party’s revival three years ago, offering free and fast bike repairs mid-festival. This year, they’re taking the alliance one step further and offering custom-designed WOBC x Bike Co-op merch.
Something entirely new, on the other hand, is that this year’s Block Party will be a collaboration with Oberlin’s semi-annual Makers Mart, so about 30 student vendors will sell their crafts and other goods in the grassy area behind the makeshift stage. This is in addition to the other organizations enlisted by the Outreach team. “In terms of tabling, we’ve become much more focused on working with the community rather than just student groups,” Roos said. “People want to support local small businesses.”
Although this year’s Block Party is focused on strengthening the bridge between WOBC and the community even further, the event has long been popular within the student body. One of the more well-known student bands performing on Sunday is Sloth, which is made up of five seniors who have been playing together since their freshman year. Despite their relatively rare longevity among Oberlin bands, this will be the group’s first Block Party.
In the face of their impending breakup upon graduation next month, the gig offers Sloth the chance to make the most of their time together and appreciate the best of Oberlin’s revered springtime culture. “Right now, we’re just focused on making the best music that we can, playing the best music that we can, and savoring these last few weeks,” said Max Newman, Sloth’s keyboardist and saxophonist.
Although the carefully chosen setlist remains a big draw for partygoers, the music is but one of many attractions within the constant whirlwind of activity around the small stage on the corner of the blacktop. OCircus puts on an aerial showcase and offers unicycling lessons, cotton candy and popcorn is dispensed, kids run between the bouncy house and the face painting station, community dads grill hundreds of burgers and hot dogs, and teens battle for glory in cornhole. Toward the end of the afternoon, a pickup basketball tournament with live commentary aired on WOBC-FM takes over the blacktop — all while bands perform ten feet away.
“It’s wonderful to play while fourth-year sociology majors shoot hoops with 10-year-old kids from the town and people unicycle around them,” Newman said. “It’s fantastic, it’s just fun. Block Party is all the best parts of Oberlin.”
Roos echoed this sentiment. “It’s really hot, really sweaty, you get sunburned, but it’s also the best day ever. All our work is paid off in this one day that shows off everything the town is best at. It brings in all different types of people and personalities — it’s the perfect small-town event.”
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