Tiffany H.

Overpriced entrance ticket ($10) + overpriced parking ($10) + long lines & food shortage + not as many food vendors as 626 night market + loud and not so great music + a bunch of cars = why did i even go Well, my friend won a few tickets, so I was able to get in for free, and my friends and I split the parking cost, so it wasn't that bad. BUT STILL. so overpriced... as if the food wasn't already expensive enough... By the time I got there, a lot of food vendors had already ran out of food, and I was sad because all the lines were really long and I really don't like overpaying for my food. Also, I really wanted to get a lemonade jar from Main Squeeze, but they ran out. :( sad face To cheer up my mood and to hopefully redeem my trip, I decided to get an ice cream thing from Uniq-cone. It's shaped like a J! I do not think they were worth the price, but I was glad that I convinced the strangers behind me to buy theirs with me, so we could get the 3 for $12 deal. I basically just bought this, so I could take a picture with it. Also, I wanted to try it, since I've never had it before. I also don't know why people would design an ice cream cone like this. Since there is ice cream coming out from both sides, this means that your ice cream is more likely to melt from both sides, which is just more trouble... oh well So if you're looking for a great food atmosphere, don't come here. It's not worth it. I didn't really enjoy the music all that much, since it wasn't my jam and it was super unnecessarily loud. I was also really confused as to why there were so many cars there. WHY IS THERE A CAR SHOW?!? Oh well. Some of them were pretty cool, but I'm no car expert, so I can't really tell whats good and bad. SO WHY DID I GIVE THIS PLACE TWO STARS INSTEAD OF JUST ONE? because fireworks. I enjoyed the fireworks. ^_^

Vic C.

Do you like to wait in lines? Are you easily amused? Do you like Pocky? If you said yes to all questions, then the OC Block Party is for you. But if you said no, then you are better off staying at home. I am sorry to give a negative review for an event that I am sure took plenty of effort to plan, but I was rather disappointed. My husband and I arrived around 7 pm. We were really lucky in catching the line closer to the bag check in (thank you fellow yelper for allowing us to jump the line with you). But if not, then we probably would have had to wait ~ 30 minutes to get in. Anyways, we were inside at 7:09 pm and unable to find the Yelp booth before 7:30 pm to get a free gift for checking in. It was crowded around this time, but we walked around the entire thing in ~ 15 minutes and were pretty board and wanted to go home. But after paying $10 for parking (thank you Ryan C for the free ticket), I wanted to stay a little longer to at least make it worth our drive from the San Gabriel Valley and the money I paid. Let me tell you what was wrong with this event (or what they can improve on): 1. There definitely was not enough food variety and vendors. Long lines were pretty much everywhere. With vendors and food trucks so close together, it was hard to get through these long lines and look to see what food items were offered. It would have been better for the food trucks and food vendor stalls to be placed a little more spread out to make it easier to walk around. 2. Overall, the event seemed pretty cramped. Space for this event really could have been better if all the space was utilized. A large part of the parking lot of the Angel Stadium was not utilized and was coned off. If they really had used the space and had more things spaced out better, there would be less of a crowd in certain areas. 3. Music was way too loud in the car import section. The deeper you walk to see the cars, the louder the music was, which made it hard to talk to the person next to you and also may give you a headache. I am not deaf but probably will be after this event. 4. Can't bring in water into event. I kind of figured that bottled water would not be allowed, as it was not allowed at the KTOWN night market (same people who put on that event put on this one). So I snuck one in anyway. At the bag check in, I saw plenty of sealed bottled waters thrown away (what a waste, especially on a warm day). At least if you wanted to buy bottled water at the event, I saw it being sold for $1 (can coke was also sold for $1 as well). But I think that is lame that this event tries to prevent you from bringing in water (even the Angel Stadium allows you to bring in a sealed bottle of water for their baseball games). 5. Price for some of the food items was pretty expensive... Middle Feast, $9-$10 for the majority of your food options is a little high, especially after price for admission is $7 per person or $10 at the door (or $5 on line with promo code) and $10 for parking. Fail and thumbs down. 6. The line for the restroom inside the beer garden section was really long. Initially there also no line for the porta-potties, but lines started to form fast. 7. Long lines for beer and the prices were ridiculous! With those negatives, let me mention a few positives: 1. Bibigo provided free chicken cilantro mini won tons. They actually tasted pretty good and was appreciative that they were giving 3 mini won tons for free to anyone and everyone who visited their truck. But I did hear that they eventually ran out (but we were lucky to snag a sample and saw that they are being sold at Costco currently on my visit to Costco this afternoon). 2. Free Pocky! The matcha flavored pocky was actually pretty good and spot on in terms of the green tea flavor. But a few negatives to mention is that one box has 11 grams of saturated fat! I know you probably do not care but it's the health nut in me that has to mention that. Also at 1 point they ran out of the Pocky. There also was no organization to handing them out because I saw plenty of people with TONS of boxes (I am sure they wanted to make sure they for their money's worth in Pocky on the money they wasted on this event). 3. Free WiFi at the Angel Stadium! After being at this event for a total of 45 minutes, we had enough and left. We ended up hitting up the Asian Night Market at the Asian Mall in Little Saigon. The food vendors sold good food that was reasonably priced and wait time was quick. I don't understand why OC Block Party can't follow suit and be a bit more organized, especially with crowd control. Also this is not the first time this block party had been done, so shouldn't the event organizers been better at well organizing this event? I will not be coming back here again. So glad I did not end up staying for the fireworks show, as I heard it was pretty short and getting out of the parking lot probably sucked.

Tiffany Y.

In all honesty, I had a lot of fun here because 1) I didn't have high expectations, 2) all I really wanted to see was the fireworks, 3) complimentary tickets courtesy of Yelp, and 4) FREE POCKY! These night market-esque things will always have a crowd, no matter what - so you really just have to be ready to wait in lines for food. I had already had my share of BBQ and other foods at another July 4th party so all I really wanted was something sweet to filly dessert cravings. I got to try the UniqCone... the milk ice cream is so good! Luckily, we were one of the last five customers before they were going to ran out of the ice cream. Phewwwww. My friends and I arrived right on time for the fireworks, and we really enjoyed it! What's nice is that there was no obstruction in our view, and the fireworks did last for almost 15 minutes. Afterwards, it was fun checking out all the modded imports, made me feel like part of a scene in Fast and Furious or something. We stayed till almost closing, so we didn't have any issues getting out of the parking lot at all.

Diana T.

Thank you Ryan C. for hooking me up with two tickets for this event! I went with my best friend and my sister (bought a presale ticket for her $7) but all in all, this was probably one of the worst events I've been to in a long time. Like others, this even was unorganized, not enough vendors, long lines and a large crowd. Thank god I dropped off because $10 for parking is ridiculous. The three of us split up to 3 different vendors and it took about an hour to order and get our food. We started getting in line at around 7:00pm. Everything was super crowded. I can expect overpriced food already but they need to have more vendors if they are going to advertise this as a night market. I was expecting it to be like 626 night market or the OC night market. My friends and I got to try the potato swirl, the elote corn, and the zeus fries. Everything was really good but so not worth the wait. The fireworks show was good all in all. Wish it was a little longer and what could have made the night was to be inside the stadium. That is how they could've made this crazy night a little more exciting. Luckily, we got some free pocky!! That was one of the highlights I guess. Everyone was munching on them because their stomach needed food!!! The cool thing about this I guess was they served beer too from the stadium. So I guess everyone was drunk with beer and pocky sticks! Lesson Learned for the future if I did ever attend an event like this: See a huge crowded? Just order everything from the one vendor you are at!!!

Brigitte O.

Love the food trucks but bummed that some of the stadium vendors are closed because the only gluten free option is Red Bridge which is the cheapest cardboard tasting last resort only option if there's no Stella Cidre or other better GF options. Car show was cool and the female DJ was okay but the other people on the mic drowned out any conversations we wanted to have to the point that my boyfriend was grimacing... and he likes loud music. Just not loud voices shouting over the music. Looking forward to fireworks but that's not until 9:45 and we arrived about 3 o'clock. Thank goodness our friends are coming to meet us here because we've already seen everything. Caution to everyone who is used to the closed water bottles allowed in the stadium: they will NOT allow them here for some reason which is pretty sad b/c it's a hot day.

Michelle L.

3.5 stars if I could do halves Lots of fun but needs some improvement. 1. More seating 2. More food vendors (lines got way too long 30 minutes plus sometimes over 1 hour 3. More information on yelp page and event brite about venue rules and that many vendors only take cash! 4. Vendors started running out of food Positives: 1. Really good food!! 2. Great fireworks display 3. Vendors that were there were delicious!! Just think this needs some improvements!

Amber L.

First of all, a BIG thank you to Ryan C. and Yelp for the tickets. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. My hunnycakes and I arrived early, well before it started, so we had plenty of time to look around without the huge crowds. We went in with ease and I immediately hit the restrooms. I know someone mentioned the lack of available restrooms, but Angel Stadium had their bathrooms open on the first floor of the stadium right where you get in. I surely didn't want to climb in that hot box known as a port-a-potty and I wanted to wash my hands. So a BIG thank you to Angel Stadium for having them open. Since we got there around 2:45, we went straight for the food. First of all, we were wondering where all of food trucks were....crickets....there were only 4 and all of them, except for one were Asian-inspired. We hit up Seoul Sausage first and stood in line for maybe 10 minutes. Thank God it wasn't the 100+ deep that others were talking about, though we did see those lines later on. We ordered the Spicy Pork and Kalbi Sausages. The Spicy Pork was a handmade BBQ pork sausage with apple cabbage coleslaw on a toasted bun. The Kalbi was a handmade BBQ beef sausage with garlic jalapeño aioli and kimchi relish. In all honesty, neither was really good. We were surprised because of all the Food Network praise, but I only took maybe 3 bites of mine and he ate half of his. The spicy pork was not spicy, either. I'm spicy, so I damn sure know what spicy is. It had very few peppers in it. Spicy to me leaves a little tingle in your mouth. This one didn't. Surprisingly to us, there was very little condiments in the bun. So little that you could barely see it, let alone taste it. So basically, it ended up being very dry. We did enjoy the buns though...we should have dumped everything and kept the buns to put our own links in later, but we ended up tossing it all. We also got the Lil' Osaka, which was a Japanese curry rice ball with beef and potatoes served with shoga siracha mayo...extremely underwhelming. I took two bites, because the first bite I thought...hhmmmm (things that make you go hmmm...remember that from In Living Color???) The second bite was a quick ughhhh...things that make you go ughhhhhh! We also tried the spicy Moroccan fish tacos from Middle Feast. Those were decent. We at least finished our tacos. We also had lobster balls from Lobsterdamus, but I wish they would have used salted butter. I can't stand plain butter with no flavor...what's the point of the cholesterol, then? I at least want to taste my wicked ways and enjoy it as it goes down. It's got to be worthy of being swallowed! We also tried the lemonade from Main Squeeze. I got the chili mango and my hunny got the watermelon. The watermelon was really good...very refreshing and lightly sweetened. The chili mango gave us both a good cough. It had way too much chili in it; so much so that you couldn't even taste the lemonade. The last thing that we tried was a macaroon ice cream sandwich from Honey and Butter. My hunny got a blue macaroon with cookie butter ice cream, drizzled in dark chocolate and rolled in crushed oreos. It was soooo good and the macaroon was nice and gooey. We also got a white bear shape macaroon with matcha green tea ice cream, rolled in pistachios. Very tasty minus the green tea ice cream. I have never had matcha green tea ice cream that was sssooooo strong! It was way too strong to even enjoy. As the hours passed, the lines for food became ridiculously long. There were not enough food options available for people and the food trucks, especially Seoul Sausage was running out of food even when we were in line and that was at 3pm...the event started at 3. Seoul Sausage only had 4 options left. How are you running out of food so early?? Because there were not enough food options, the lines for the ones that were there were at least 30-40 deep! Ridiculous for that type of event. They also had a car show, DJ, and some suck ass performers...they should have just had the DJ. Hell, I could have gotten up there and performed! Lines for alcohol were atrocious and there were not enough places to sit. They had tables set up that would seat maybe 10 people under a covered section, but it was a bit challenging for us to find a seat and that was early on...you should have seen it when we were trying to leave at 7pm. In all, it seemed like a useful event that just happened to have been on the 4th of July, though I seriously doubt that it was an actual 4th of July event. There were no real "independence day" festivities. I hope that they take the time to plan it better next time. I really don't think that they expected the masses that showed up and they ultimately weren't prepared for it and it showed.

Julian A.

The OC BlockBUST Party was one that was well worth of a disappointment for me. Poorly planned, poorly managed and just a poor experience overall. The fact that I was looking so forward to this event and got this bad experience out of it really irked me. I was expecting to see about close to 100 vendors and/or food trucks. What I got to see was about 20 or less. Halfway through the "festival," many of the vendors ran out of food. This place was so jam packed with foot traffic I was only able to grab a pork bratwurst from Seoul Sausage and a cup of corn. I was not even able to purchase a beer due to the fact that they were only being sold before you hit the parking lot. I mean come on...a beer goes great paired with some of the eats they had out there. This BlockBUST party was held at Angels Stadium in Anaheim this year. Parking was $10, which in my opinion was well not worth it due to the fact that many of us already had to pay $10 to get in this "party!" It was $7 if you purchased your tickets online during their presale. Getting into the event was okay, considering there was only one long line. It was moving fairly quickly though. The beer garden was jam packed. The parking lot was even worse. They had a Hot Import Nights car show which featured some finely tuned imports. They also had some live performances which were like whatever. The fireworks show....well.....lets just say the Disneyland fireworks show nearby was better. They should've launched them from inside the ballpark. Mediocre at best. I rarely give 1 star reviews but this event was well deserving of it. Next time, that is if there is a next time, have more food trucks and more vendors. At least 100 more. This is one party I will definitely remember...for being such a bust.

Alice L.

I was able to nab a free ticket when they did their first 500 to text ### gets in free promotion. (Thanks, Jenny B for giving me a 2nd free ticket!) Otherwise it would've been $7 per head on top of the $10 parking. We arrived at around 7 PM and the first food truck that looked interesting (Bibigo, korean bimbap bowls) was sold out. Sold out! The event had 3 hours of life left! Call in reinforcements or something but don't just stand there and keep on repeating that you're sold out. From then on, a majority of the event was waiting for food in line. At most there was about 5 food trucks and maybe 10-12 food vendors that had a mix of savory and dessert. Definitely not enough! The amount of shopping vendors was a joke and the Hot Import Night Cars took up half of the event space, maybe more. That area should've housed more food vendors to offset the foot traffic. We ended up walking back to the car when the fireworks started and leaving right when it ended for a semi-painless exit strategy. The only highlights of my night were grabbing enough free boxes of Matcha Pocky to offset my parking $$ and my macaron ice cream sandwich from Honey & Butter. I would absolutely skip this event next year as it has nothing to do with the 4th and their crowd control / offerings are extremely lacking. Like another reviewer said, it's a dumbed down version of the 626 Night Market.

Nik E.

Maaannnn OC blOCk Party gets no love!! Big ups to the plug Ryan C. For hooking me up with two tickets. So without further ado, let me get to reviewing this event. I downloaded the tickets to my phones passbook for easier check in and to be more eco friendly, by saving a tree instead of printing the ticket. There was a $10 parking fee and they had plenty ushers roaming the lot so parking was as easy as ABC, 123, ABC baby you and me giiiiirrrlllll. The notice for this event was sorta misleading; it said to "show up super early because it will fill up early," so I was that guy that showed up at 3 o'clock to make sure I had a guaranteed spot, but there were hardly any people roaming around. It was quite dead to be honest. To be there all alone was killer lol. I walked around the event like 5 times before settling in. The walking around was pretty much scoping out the joint and also checking out what food vendors they had to offer. Let me just tell you that it was quite disappointing to see such a small amount especially since the venue was so LARGE. Some of the key vendors is like to highlight are Seoul Sausage Co, Dynasty Taco Co, La Calaca Fish Tacos, Bling Bling Dumpling, Üniq-Cone, Crasians Good Greek Grub & Mustache Mike's Italian Ice. If you went by yourself you were not going to have a good time. I actually invited my family up there and once they got there the event was a little better the handle. To be honest, I would have left of my parents and brothers had not already bought a ticket and had been on their way. The place really didn't begin to get super busy until around 6pm when the line to get in was super packed. I did see that even with a packed line, it was a breeze to get in. They really hit you hard with that no re-entry rule which was pretty lame especially if you were there since the beginning. I felt caged in until the fireworks show. When the crowd grew is when you realized that the event wasn't so much planned out. With so many people, it was bad planning to have limited food trucks because the wait times were ridiculous for the more popular vendors. You would have to break up your family to save a spot in each line you wanes food in just to be efficient. Besides the food they had a mini concert throughout the day with several performances and then they hit you with Young Casey Veggies as your headliner which was pretty cool. I know him through a friend and had NO IDEA he was even gonna be there lol. There was a car show as well. The cars were pretty nice. There were pick up trucks, cars with hydraulics, clean cars, and a few exotic cars (Audi R8 which is my fave). Then on that second stage there was a bikini contest with some hotties. Now the main reason people went to the event was to celebrate the 4th of July with a firework show. I waited 7 hours to watch a firework show and it lasted like 20 minutes. It was cool but wasn't the greatest. Overall the event left me feelin ehhhh. I would come back probably but if I were to, it would be maybe for 4 hours. No way I would spend 8 hours. It wasn't that fun for me. Happy Independence Day Murica!!!!!

Chiante M.

Thanks Ryan C for the tickets! I stopped by the Yelp booth and got a cool Yelp bag:) The event was decent, but definitely took me back to the mid 90's when racing was the phenomenon. Wait, it seems to revive itself every year doesn't it?! So it's still going strong and hasn't faded away. Some hot chick Marie Madore (Miss HIN Dallas) was taking pictures with a shit ton of dudes. Not that many food trucks or booths to choose from. It was between 2 for me, Toro Burger & Slanging Corea. Went with the latter only because Toro didn't have Tater Tots (boOoO). Had an OG Quesadilla (angus steak) for $8 bucks and the hubby had 3 OG Tacos (angus steak) for $5 bucks. It was good. Got bottled water ($2.75 a piece) and played 1 round each of that "Ring Around the Bottle" carnival game, 10-12 rings for $2. Didn't win. Used the restrooms inside the stadium which were cleaner. T-Shirt, vape and car accessory vendors were everywhere. And $10. for parking -_- . Spent $31.50 at this event, not sure if that's good or bad. Saw some dope BMWs and a Porsche. 2 female DJs were killing it on one stage, too bad no one was watching when we went by o_O. Singers and emcees on another stage close to the main entrance. Lots more people than I expected. But lots of them just sitting around. Happy Fourth!

Patrick M.

Overhyped, overcrowded (later on), overpriced, and boring. 1. Atmosphere is similar to 626 night market. Far east Asian dominated event. Although I am of Asian ancestry, I would prefer to attend a more American event during an American holiday, perhaps with a live band where the singer is in his 60's playing good old rock n roll hits. 2. Food selection was ok. There were food booths and food trucks. Again it was Asian dominated. Not everything was good especially that Bamboo truck that has yellow with a Panda on it. We went there because it had the shortest line... And now we know why. 3. The lines were short from 3-6PM. But were horribly long afterwards. Except for the Squeezed booth that sold fruit infused drinks. That's been crazy busy with long lines since the event opened. 3A. Bibim-truck or whatever their name was RAN OUT OF FOOD AT 6:30PM!!! You don't go to a well advertised event, at a huge location, without bringing enough FOOD!!! And CRASIAN also ran out of Pork Belly, and the wait AFTER you place an order was another hour for the food. 4. The CAR SHOW was weak. I've seen better in years past. Even the "model search" show was whack. Each of them walked the stage to NO MUSIC, despite there being a DJ on stage. The host kept asking the crowd to wake up. Telling them to do so WON'T DO IT!!! Their mic sucked so when the host asked each model whether she prefers stick or automatic, each of them sounded like they were speaking another language. Oh and put more than one BMW next time. I drive one so I don't care much for some of the crap esp those with hardly any customization whatsoever. 5. The entertainment sucked except for the Black rapper right before the fireworks. I think his name was Kasey. And the chubby Asian rapper, he was decent. The rest sucked!!!! There was this one girl who was totally out of tune. I sing for a choir and would appreciate if they picked out performers that know how to perform. On a positive note, the jumpers and slides looked fun although I think I'm too heavy to participate.