Crowded around a multi-colored mountain of shirts and pants, thrifters of all ages, each with their own unique style, sifted through piles of clothes at The People’s Party block party.
Drawn by the promise of $5 clothing piles, food vendors, and live music, thousands of thrifters took over Church Street in Harvard Square on May 17, 2025, for a block party featuring over 100 vendors in collaboration with Select Markets.
The event, sponsored by and held in partnership with The Boston Globe, Flare 360, Boston.com, DX Arcade, SoundCloud, Topo Chico, and the Harvard Square Business Association, aimed to create an open-air celebration of community, culture, and creativity.
“We wanted to create something to give back to the community and have people come out and have a great vibe,” said Edgard Arty, one of the co-producers of The People’s Party. Arty worked on the Block Party, mainly focusing on setting up events, parties, and nightlife.
By blending shopping, music, and food vendors, the all-day street festival was a hybrid of a vintage market and a celebration of Cambridge culture. The Church Street parking lot held both booths from local vendors and event sponsors, as well as a stage with rotating live DJs. Vendors sold everything from 70s to Y2K-style clothes to homemade candles and crocheted flowers.
Jason Suzuki, a 20-year-old vendor from Boston, was selling custom airbrushed shirts, something he’s been doing for four years. Each piece of clothing is customized with designs requested by his customers, something which Suzuki said was his favorite part.
“I am helping their vision come to life,” said Suzuki, as he lightly sprayed the outline of a new design for a customer. “It’s simple but can make someone so happy. That’s one of the best parts about it.”
Suzuki, who had worked in similar pop-up markets for a year and a half in Boston, said, “This is the best one. I can pull up with my airbrush and have a good time.”
The People’s Party has been in development for the past year. The event is the successor to the music and cannabis-centered Dx420 Block Party held in April 2024.
Despite the organizers’ initial concerns about the weather, the first People’s Party went off without a hitch.
“It’s been phenomenal,” Arty, the co-producer, said. “The weather held out. The street’s looking great. The vintage vendors are having a great time…we want to do this for the people.”
The crowded streets caused many to take refuge on the sidewalks. Kristina Ocasio, a junior architecture major at Wentworth, stood on the sidewalk, staring into the constantly moving stream of people.
“The middle is very crowded; it’s nice to walk around the outside,” Ocasio said. She attends similar events, and said the vintage market was larger and more crowded.“It’s in a nice area, so I can’t really complain.”
In the chaotic mix of jubilant thrifters on Church Street, Emerson students with Dreamworldgirl Zine walked around, asking pressing Boston fashion questions to passers-by.
Dreamworldgirl Zine, a print and digital multimedia magazine for all things girlhood, was created by recent Emerson graduate Daphne Bryant ‘25. Bryant currently serves as co-editor of the magazine.
In collaboration with Select markets, members of Dreamworldgirl Zine conducted on-the-street interviews with fashionable thrifters.
“We thought it’d be cool to collab and bring our identity of Dreamworldgirl into, not only the questions, but also the interviews themselves,” said Isabelle Galgano, a junior communications major and co-editor of the Dreamworldgirl Zine.
Galgano responded to the claim that Boston has no fashion scene, saying, “I feel like this has proven them wrong. It’s great to see a Boston-based org doing some awesome stuff.”
Looking to the future of the event, Arty explained, ”As [The People’s Party] grows, we want it to be a greater and greater legacy event for the City of Cambridge.”
