South Euclid’s Rock the Block festival is back for two days later this month, bringing 17 live performances across three stages to the South Euclid Food Truck Park at 4477 Rushton Road. The free festival runs from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday, August 21, and from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, August 22, offering reggae, rock, funk, jazz, soul, blues, latin fusion and pop-punk acts alongside food and family-friendly activities.
Rock the Block has become South Euclid’s annual signature event, drawing thousands of people to the city each year, according to Cleveland.com. The festival was founded in 2015, per the outlet, under the leadership of then-South Euclid Council member Tony Caroscio, who led its founding to celebrate businesses in the Mayfield-Green business district. The event was created to fill a void left after the city’s previous festival, Home Days, was cancelled in 2008 amid the national economic downturn, according to FreshWater Cleveland — meaning South Euclid went six years without a major community festival before Rock the Block launched.
Nonprofit community development corporation One South Euclid serves as the festival’s official fiscal sponsor, managing sponsorships and community outreach for the event, per the same account. The organization was established as a 501(c)(3) in 2009 during the foreclosure crisis, making it the second suburban community development corporation formed in the Cleveland area, according to Case Western Reserve University’s Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. It was created to help stabilize residential neighborhoods and revitalize commercial corridors, work that continues today through its close collaboration with city officials on business growth and public programming.
Who’s Playing Where
Friday’s Dollar Bank Stage opens with Carlos Jones & the P.L.U.S. Band from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., followed by the Michael Weber Show from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., per Cleveland.com. The Röchling Stage that evening features Son Gitano and Perfect Choice Band, while the side stage hosts Loconti from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Girl Cologne closing the night from 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m…