We sent 20 photographers to 65 parties across the city to capture New Yorkers eating, dancing and playing in the streets.

New Yorkers, we live on top of one another, so it’s only natural that sometimes we spill out onto the concrete. It happens especially during the sweltering summer spells, when even the apartment walls seem to sweat.

There are very few backyards in the city, so to avoid walking up flights, a steamy basement or balmy bedrooms, we hug the block.

Across all five boroughs New Yorkers set out on their streets with lawn chairs, pools, bouncy castles and tables full of food, to enjoy the summer together. Throughout the day there is a cacophony of familiar music, the laughter of children playing and the sizzling sound of meat on a grill. No cars are allowed.

According to a New York Times article from 1923, this tradition of gathering on stoops and visiting with neighbors goes back as far as the 1860s. By the middle of the 20th century, the custom had blossomed into a full-on celebration.

This is the New York City block party.

South Second Street Williamsburg Brooklyn 52nd Street Sunset Park Monroe Street Bedford-Stuyvesant Gates Avenue Bedford-Stuyvesant The thing is, come out, give love to your neighbor. Everyone you meet, give love, let them know who you are. Leroy Williams, Jefferson Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant Gates Avenue Bedford-Stuyvesant St. James Place Clinton Hill Gates Avenue Bushwick The openness of the block, the freedom of doing your own thing is what is special about this. Julie Mancini, East 35th Street, Marine Park Ryder Street Marine Park Ryder Street Marine Park Blake Avenue Brownsville Ryder Street Marine Park 54th Street Sunset Park

Even though the block party has a long history in New York, the city didn’t begin keeping records until 1999. This year there were 1,311 permitted block parties in New York City between June 1 and Sept. 1. The majority were in Brooklyn, which had 721 parties this year, more than the other boroughs combined.

The tradition has at times been marred by violence: In July there was a shooting at a block party in Brownsville that left 11 people injured.

Mostly, they are moments for a neighborhood to come together. Many streets use it as an opportunity for outreach: Health clinics set up tables, church leaders give sermons and neighbors converse and feed one another.

[Read about how Times photographers fanned out across 65 block parties in all five boroughs to find camaraderie, community and cotton candy.]

“I just want the community to know that those things are not going to stop us from serving the community or from helping your neighbor or reaching out to your neighbor,” said Pastor Vanessa Rodriguez, who attended a block party in Harlem hosted by the Friendly Hands Ministry.

146th Street Hamilton Heights Manhattan 147th Street Sugar Hill 147th Street Sugar Hill The thing I love about New York City is the fact that you don’t have to be from here to belong in the city, because it’s a city of transplants. So, you come to the city and you find your family here. Olanna Goudeau, West 132nd Street, Harlem West 132nd Street Harlem West 132nd Street Harlem 146th Street Hamilton Heights East 119th Street East Harlem East 119th Street East Harlem

I grew up in Harlem on 132nd Street. That was my block. The people that lived in my building were my extended family. And as a child who was born in the summer, my birthday parties were usually block parties.

There was the ice cream cake my mother kept in our freezer until it was the perfect time to bring it downstairs. The neighbor from one of the floors closest to the street who would play music loud enough that it would pour out onto the concrete stoop.

The food, as diverse as the people cooking it, took on a life of its own: from filet mignon that fell off a truck to BBQ ribs, elote, burgers, frio frios, Icees, whatever was in the pot your neighbor brought down straight from their stove.

My friends and I would skateboard, ride our bikes up and down the street and sometimes, if you could get us to stay in one place, we’d show off our dance moves for our parents and neighbors.

But the best part of the block party was when we saw someone pull out that massive wrench to open up the fire hydrant. We let the ice-cold water splash solace onto our sweaty skin.

Most important, all of my friends were already there.

108th Street Richmond Hill Queens 102nd Avenue Jamaica 230th Street Laurelton Before the previous block party people didn’t communicate. People were judgmental of each other. After the first one we became one big family. Paul Padarat, 102nd Avenue, Jamaica 107th Avenue Jamaica 64th Place Glendale 107th Avenue Jamaica 116th Street Richmond Hill There’s nowhere else like this neighborhood, where else can you hear Caribbean and West Indian music playing out in the streets? Elizabeth Harrinarine, 108th Street, Richmond Hill 230th Street Laurelton 230th Street Laurelton

At block parties across the city you can find people of all ages, from all over the world, who somehow ended up being New Yorkers from the same block. A celebration of those faux familial ties we make as city dwellers. We celebrate one another’s birthdays, making rent, a release from prison, a return from military service, a marriage, a baby shower, a graduation, a new job.

Permitted or not, the block can hold enough joy for any occasion.

“Everyone knows each other, everyone looks out for each other. Everyone helped with the signs, collecting money, the permits. It’s a lot of deep friendship built in this neighborhood,” said Julie Mancini, at a block party in Marine Park, Brooklyn.

In 1923, The New York Times called the block party a “jollification,” and a “social phenomenon.” Though there are reports of earlier versions of street-based gatherings, the block party as we know it today began when New Yorkers held celebrations for soldiers coming back from World War I.

“To some degree,” the author said, “it was organized to fill a purpose, then the idea caught on and the block party as an institution became more spontaneous.”

By the 1980s, the spontaneity of block parties had made them fertile ground for rap and hip-hop to bloom. D.J.s would plug their turntables into streetlight outlets. A crowd would form and the M.C. — the rapper — would spit livewire rhymes. Live music performances, and the dancing that came with them, became an integral part of the event.

“I’m a D.J., and I love getting the crowd going,” said Adrian Lucas, who D.J.s her block’s annual party in Harlem. “It’s even more fun to see the people I know happy and excited because of the music.”

Bryant Avenue New Dorp Staten Island Sycamore Street Annadale Sandalwood Drive Great Kills Sycamore Street Annadale Today is truly for the community and by the community, that’s something that we really embrace and that’s our mission. Emanuel Bloomfield-Jones, Continental Place, Mariners Harbor Bartow Street Bay Terrace Sandalwood Drive Great Kills Continental Place Mariners Harbor Forest Street Bulls Head Sycamore Street Annadale Acacia Avenue Great Kills

For some, however, the idea of a block party is a New York City relic.

“I think they are dying,” Elander Williams said at a block party in Bedford-Stuyvesant. “We have very little participation. The kids are growing up and the new generation are not interested in having block parties.”

In the last 10 years the number of permits the city has issued for block parties has been steadily decreasing. There were 537 fewer permitted block parties this year between June 1 and Sept. 1, than in 2009, when 1,848 permits were issued during that same period. That could be because more people are having block parties without the city’s permission or because fewer blocks are throwing them.

“Every year it has come to less and less,” said Patrick Welch, who went to a block party in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he has lived his whole life. “Block parties will continue, but those who move on the block must embrace the culture. But, they do not. They pass by you and to them you don’t exist. So how can you have a block party after that?”

Maybe fretting over whether block parties are dying, however, is also part of the tradition. In the article from 1923, the author lamented, “What has become of the block parties? It is midsummer and you may search the town from end to end and find scarcely one.”

Chatterton Avenue Castle Hill The Bronx Clinton Avenue East Tremont Clinton Avenue East Tremont Lyon Avenue Castle Hill Clay Avenue Concourse Village That’s when you know you’re on the right block. When your neighbors come to help you and you don’t even have to ask. And that’s the way this neighborhood is. Bob Bieder, Glebe Avenue, Castle Hill Grant Avenue Concourse Village Murdock Avenue Wakefield A lot of new folks just moved here from all over the world, right in this one block, so when we have block parties like this we try to bring everybody together. Walter Relaford, Grant Avenue, Concourse Village Chatterton Avenue Castle Hill Glebe Avenue Castle Hill Clay Avenue Concourse Village

Some New Yorkers find it difficult to foster a sense of community with new faces on the block every year, but no matter how new you are, a block party can be an opportunity for New Yorkers to come down from their towers and meet one another.

“I was feeling kind of iffy when the neighborhood started to become gentrified and different colors started to move in,” said Duron Johnson, who was attending a party on his childhood block in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. “But when I came to the block party today, I’m looking at Asian kids, black kids, Caucasian kids, and they are playing together, and I feel like right now it’s a good time, and it’s going to be a bright future for block parties.”

For me the block party remains a charming part of my life and an intrinsic part of a proper New York City upbringing. Those summer days are a still life in my memory: Getting soaked by the icy water shooting out of the fire hydrant. My mother sitting on the stoop with our neighbors, in her linen blouse, laughing at a joke she was telling. My brother and his friends running past me, probably heading to Cristian’s to buy candy.

New York City loses an integral part of itself without the block party but I am sure it isn’t going anywhere. When the humidity and temperatures are high and New Yorkers have only got one another, there’s no better place to go than the block.