August 16th, 2025 is our 7th year of hosting The Block Party in Youngstown, Ohio. We’re a group of 5 hometown friends who all live in various cities who come home to host a local music and comedy festival once a year every summer. I developed our mascot, Stu, to evolve over time in the same way we would as people. He’s apart of the friend group and we get to go on new adventures with him every year. We started as a hip-hop festival to represent old fashion block parties that one of our friends would go to growing up in the inner city. It represents a community coming together, someone brings the tv outside, another person grills for everyone, and there’s always the best person on music. We’ve taken those vibes and we bring our hometown community together to showcase our city’s music scene, comedians, local food, and local vendors. The hand-drawn illustrative style represents our DIY authentic aesthetic while I get to participate in the block party myself by adding my own style onto the poster as a featured artist! This year, we had tooth gems and flash tattoo artist come so Stu is visually repping those new additions! While Subaru was one of our main sponsors so we had to add a car. Everything is hand-drawn, typography and all. We honor our founding member every year, as he passed away in 2023 and we throw this whole festival for him and his foundation to contribute to the teams that helped take care of him during his sickness. Bog deep! Doing it all for Sam! <3