Seattle Design Festival Block Party @ Lake Union Park

Full Fest Aug 20-26 • Block Party Aug 20-21

The Seattle Design Festival (SDF) is a required near-end-of-summer event for me. Billed as the largest design-related festival in the Pacific Northwest, SDF presents programming all around the city, from Fremont to Columbia City, with walking and rolling tours throughout. But its biggest offering is the massive block party it hosts in South Lake Union’s Lake Union Park this weekend (August 20-21), featuring installations from artists and architects that expand on this year’s theme of “connection.”

These aren’t your average installations. They’re Big. Bold. Handsy. Based on the designs included in SDF’s event calendar, this year’s block-partygoers can expect to solve collaborative mazes, weave threads throughout a big-ass box, dance around an installation that looks like it’s out of Wii Sports, and pick up little trees to take home. You can also toilet paper a tree, it looks like. It’s all very fun and good for selfies, sure, but it’s also a thoughtful exercise in imagining a better city that works for all of us.