The chance to dance like everybody is watching, but nobody watching can hear your music returns on Saturday, as the Downtown Block Party’s Silent Disco takes over the stretch of Dubuque Street in front of Pullman Bar & Diner (17 S Dubuque St). The Silent Disco is just one of the familiar favorites returning to the community party hosted by the Iowa City Downtown District.
Along with the Silent Disco, regular features like sand volleyball, a blitz tournament for chess players, a tug-of-war tournament, a drag show and giant Jenga will be returning. But this year will also have something new: professional wrestling.
There will be two matches by SCWPro at the intersection of Washington and Linn, the first at 5:30 p.m. and the second at 8 p.m. Founded in 2003, SCWPro is one of the oldest independent wrestling promotions in Iowa, and features wrestlers from Davenport’s Black and Brave Wrestling Academy.
There will also be live music at the Weatherdance Stage on the Ped Mall starting at 5 p.m. and finishing up around 9:45 p.m. FilmScene will be showing Crooklyn, Spike Lee’s semi-autobiographical film about growing up in New York on the outdoor screen in Chauncey Swan Park starting at 9 p.m.
The seven-hour-long Downtown Block Party kicks off at 4 p.m. on Saturday. A complete list of activities, with times and locations, is available on the Downtown District’s website.
Anyone of legal age wanting to drink wine or beer while wandering around the 17 blocks of the party will need to purchase an official cup to do so. Cups will be available at the party for $15. Tickets for the cups can be purchased online before the party starts.
And, of course, before the party starts, downtown streets will need to be blocked off. Starting at 5 a.m. on Saturday, the following streets will be closed to traffic.
• Iowa Avenue from Clinton to Linn streets
• Washington Street from Clinton to Gilbert streets
•Clinton Street from Iowa Avenue to the College Street portion of the Ped Mall
• Dubuque Street from Iowa Avenue to the Ped Mall
• Linn Street from Iowa Avenue to just south of Washington Street
Free parking will be available in all the downtown parking ramps, from Saturday through 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Closing off the heart of downtown also changes to the city bus service. On Saturday, the bus hub will move from Washington and S Clinton to Court Street between Clinton and Dubuque, and several bus stops will be out of service.
Outbound stops
• Washington Street & Linn Street (stop 7200)
• Washington Street and Gilbert Street (stop 7201)
• Clinton Street & Jefferson Street (stop 7400)
• Jefferson Street & Linn Street (stop 7401)
• UI Main Library (stop 7080)
Inbound stops
• UI Lindquist Center (stop 7079)
• Market Street & Linn Street (stop 7206)
• Clinton Street & Jefferson Street (stop 7207)
• IC Recreation Center (stop 7243)
• Burlington Street & Dubuque Street (stop 7244)
Bus service will return to normal when it resumes on Monday morning.
