After 25 years of bringing music to the Twin Cities, the Basilica Block Party announced it’s officially ending, making 2024’s event its final festival.
The festival had seen a diverse lineup of acts headline over the years, from Weezer to Panic! at the Disco to Trampled by Turtles to Kacey Musgraves. Serving the community since 1995, the block party was first developed as a fundraiser to help restore the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. Three decades later, more than $7 million was raised, some going to the St. Vincent de Paul ministry for people in need. But over time, problems started popping up—the early 2010s saw protests and people refusing to attend over the Catholic Church’s views on same-sex marriage and sex abuse scandals.
The event was previously held in the Basilica parking lot before construction forced organizers to move the festival to its most recent location at Boom Island Park in 2024, where fans had hoped for more events to come. The block party started to occur irregularly after the pandemic in 2020, when the event was first canceled. Because of the pandemic, the 2021 event had lower attendance…