Blocked.

The Massive Deep Ellum Block Party Isn’t Happening After All. Well, Not This Year Anyway.

From the first time we heard about local promoter Charlsie Grace’s plans to throw a huge three-day festival in Deep Ellum this April, we’ve pretty much been dicks about it, cracking wise about how the thing would probably never happen, and referring to the fest’s first batch of announced acts as“non-earth-shattering names.”

In our defense, the would-be Deep Ellum Block Party’s stated goal to bring over 300 bands and over 700 other visual artists, filmmakers, brewers, actors, dancers, comedians, authors, food vendors spread across 20 stages in Deep Ellum seemed a tad far-fetched from the jump. As we’ve pointed out before, that number would have more than doubled the amount of acts Spune booked for 2014’s Deep Ellum-held Index Fest — and that company is one that with exponentially more experience in booking festivals than Grace’s The Artist Collective company.

As rad as it all sounded, it wasn’t a huge shock then to receive a press release from Grace earlier today saying the Deep Ellum Block Party won’t be happening after all — not in 2015, anyway.

Per that release: “After a lot of consideration we have decided to postpone Deep Ellum Block Party. I am having some chronic health issues (and an impending surgery) that have made the festival happening this year impossible. We hope that things work out for 2016 and we’re trying to get our headliners (Yo La Tengo, Public Enemy, etc) rescheduled for then.”

According to a feature in the Dallas Observer last spring, Grace was diagnosed last year with Huntington’s Disease, a hereditary, and currently incurable neurodegenerative disorder.

Our attempts to reach out to Grace for further comment have not been returned. Still, the big takeaway from this morning’s announcement is that the Deep Ellum Block Party won’t be happening this April, as scheduled. It will potentially be rescheduled for 2016.

We’ll see.