No Love for Youngsters

"I guess they wanted to make the event more family-accessible," says Timothy Joseph, singer/guitarist with Buckfast Superbee. Joseph's band and other P.B. Block Party favorites such as Slightly Stoopid are not being asked to perform this year. "We played every year for the last four years," says Joseph.

Six stages will be set up and 43 bands will play, but P.B. Block Party event coordinator Kevin Hellman confirms that for the first time, bands with a younger following will not be invited.

"This is not just for your cool local bands or your cool regional bands," says Hellman. "We don't want problems in the area that you could have when you attract a younger crowd.... We have had a few calls from bands [who wanted to play]. They see that the way we are booking this now, it wouldn't make sense [to book them]."

Hellman says younger people don't need musical incentive to come to the P.B. Block Party. "They are already there. We'd like to attract families and older people." The two sponsors of the event -- Discover P.B. and the P.B. Community Foundation -- expressed the desire to hire bands that appeal to the 30-plus crowd.

The P.B. Block Party is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. See www.pbblockparty.com for more info.