Let’s think of sunny days and free time ahead. Recess is coming to Cal Anderson Park.

“It’s about getting out and playing a little bit,” Clay Lundquist of Center Stage Entertainment Marketing tells CHS. “After we become adults, we don’t play.”

The new day of grown-up play — “Relive the good old days with all of your favorite schoolyard games, music and food. But this time it’s just for adults.” — is set to try to become the latest new summer tradition on Capitol Hill, joining events like Pride’s picnics and festivals and the Capitol Hill Block Party on the slate of things to plan your summer around in the neighborhood.

Recess is scheduled to run from noon to 7 PM on Saturday, August 3rd.

Like the Block Party, Recess will be a ticketed event with booze and lots of music. With Block Party facing a year of scrutiny over costs and complaints from neighbors and neighboring businesses, Lundquist is hoping Recess fits well into its Cal Anderson footprint this August.

The park’s Bobby Morris Playfield, skate, bike polo, and tennis courts, basketball court, and grassy meadow bowl near the Shelterhouse will be put to use making space for every extracurricular grade school activity from organized games of kickball, foursquare, tetherball, and hopscotch to… tagging:

Join us for Recess Seattle and feel the nostalgia as you kick the scoring run at a game of kickball, show off your skills on the four square court and maybe even get a little naughty in the graffiti zone.

There will also be live music and DJs “playing your favorite old school hits” and food trucks “featuring all of your favorite foods from childhood.” The event is 21+.

General admission tickets will be $25 plus fees. Ronald McDonald House will benefit from some of the event’s proceeds.

“We looked at a lot of areas around Seattle,” Lundquist said. “With the activities we had, we had some very specific needs.”

Lundquist said putting together the first time event working with Seattle Parks has gone smoothly. “The look and feel of it is going to fit into the area really well,” he said. The process for gaining the permit for adding a big event to Cal Anderson has so far been a pretty straightforward affair.

It’s the first big commercial event to give Cal Anderson a try since the Seattle Street Food Festival gave the venue a spin for a few years before moving its production off Hill. Producers said 11th Ave’s cramped quarters and limitations over how best to handle VIP ticketed experiences were behind that decision to move away from the park.

Cal Anderson also makes a home every June for the PrideFest Family Pride event.

Like Family Pride, the hope is for Recess to grow into an annual event in Seattle.

“It’s the perfect area. Maybe someday, it will take up a bigger piece of the park,” Lundquist said.

The company is also planning an October Recess in Los Angeles with more cities “coming soon.”

Recess Seattle takes place August 3rd. You can learn more at recessevent.com.

BECOME A 'PAY WHAT YOU CAN' CHS SUBSCRIBER TODAY: Support local journalism dedicated to your neighborhood. SUBSCRIBE HERE. Join to become a subscriber at $1/$5/$10 a month to help CHS provide community news with NO PAYWALL. You can also sign up for a one-time annual payment.