When she tries to explain to people why they should come down to the Block Street Block Party, Jessy Lang doesn’t have a complicated pitch. She tells potential visitors that it’s a big, family-friendly festival that’s free.

“That’s enough to getpeople excited about it,” says Lang, who owns Good Things Boutique on Block Avenue and serves as treasurer for the Block Street Business Association, the organization that presents the annual block party.

People certainly have come.

About 6,000 people attended the inaugural block party in 2011. About twice as many came to last year’s event, and organizers expect about the same number for this year’sfestival, which begins at 11 a.m.

Sunday and continues through dark.

To help accommodate the influx of visitors, Lang, along with other chief coordinators Hannah Withers of Little Bread Company and Maxine’s Tap Room and Stacey Wieties of Dark Star Visuals, have secured additional volunteers for the cause. Many of them have been provided through a new program. Local nonprofit organizations, instead of paying for booth space, can instead provide a few hours of volunteer work for the block party. Several new vendors have been recruited, including several food trucks, among them Nomad’s Natural Plate and Primal Knead pizza shop.

The Block Street Block Party started as a way for shop keepers on Block Avenue to draw people to the area.

“I think a lot of business owners wanted to be active in starting something,” Withers says. Withers, who now co-owns two Block Avenue businesses, reports that several fellow storefronts on that street have experienced a growth in sales since the block party was introduced. Some 15 to 20 of the street’s 40-plus businesses will participate in the block party, Withers says.

Meanwhile, many other Fayetteville businesses and nonprofit groups are participating as vendors.

Block Avenue will be closed to cross traffic from Dickson Street to Mountain Street to accommodate the vendor booths, and vendors are encouraged to come up with active ways to engage their audience.

“We try not to have 18 groups handing out pamphlets,” Withers says.

At least three Block Avenue locations will offer live music stages: Maxine’s, The LightbulbClub and Tables & Ale. Several other venues will also offer tunes, including the former GoodFolk Productions home.

Many of the party’s most popular nonmusic events will return for the 2013 edition. The waiters’ race will pit some of the area’s top service employees against each other, and a jump rope competition will let youngsters compete. Another highlight, Lang predicts, will be a graffiti demonstration in the the back of a moving truck. The work will be unveiled after the sun goes down.

All told, the Block Street Block Party brings out the best of Fayetteville, Lang says.

“There are so many creativepeople coming up with so many creative things. I’m not really sure, but I think it’ll all come together.”

Whats Up, Pages 15 on 05/17/2013