A new tradition kicked off last Saturday when The Orange County Block Party created by Curious Entertainment debuted in Downtown SanTana. Curious Entertainment has been holding the down the funk scene in Orange County for a couple of years with their events like Firme Sunday and Funk Fest. The Orange County Block Party however was something the team had long awaited doing, bringing in different genres of music for a diverse crowd and overall a memorable time.
“[This is] one of the best shows ever brought to Santa Ana, this is history” a local music enthusiast named Pedro says as he makes his way from one stage to the next. “You got Kurupt playing on one end and La Sonora Dinamita playing on the other, where else does that happen?” Doors opened at 2 and the day started off slow people walked around visiting the vendors within the festival vendors like; Royal Blunts, Lowrider Oldies, Gunthers, Modelo and many others. The event had six food trucks inside and more than fifty portable potties so no one would have to wait in line for to long. As the sun set and anticipated artists went on stage the crowd seemed larger than Trumps inauguration.
“I had no idea we had such as huge Latino fan base” Vaughan Mason said after his performance. “We started the keys to Feel My Love and the crowd went wild, that song never even made it to radio! We are appreciative to the people of Orange County for being giving and keeping our music alive”.
A total of 6000 tickets were sold for the Orange County Block Party. But that came as no surprise to George Sanchez the Founder of Curious Entertainment. “This has always been my dream, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again everything my team and I do is for the culture and the community, the profit is just a plus” George tells the Weekly. “We are going to keep out beating and out shining ourselves, we are our only competition”. With so much talent on different sides of the spectrum one would think there might be some egos flying high but everyone seemed to enjoy each other company. Artist were accommodating on the Blue Lot located on Bush and First.
You had artists and bands like The Originals, Ozone and One Way sitting by one another, greeting each other, eating , drinking and overall just having just as much as a good time as the people who came to watch them perform. “I’m a fan of all this shit” says Mayor Hawthorne a member of Tuxedo as he danced and sang along to One Way “All these groups they’re are the ones who inspired us”.
The night was brought to an end with Ramon Ayala performing on the main stage, Tuxedo on the second known as Halo Stage and 2Live Crew on the third known as the Festival Stage. The energy from the crowd was still running high even after the last performers but Curious got it covered having an after party in the Festival previously known as The Underground Santa Ana. “you can expect The Orange County Block Party to be an annual event and for the meanwhile stay excited for Funk Fest 2018 thats already in the works and it will be better and bigger than this past one”.
