bumbershoot
Pavement, James Blake, Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett and more have been announced as headliners for the 2024 edition of Seattle’s famed Bumbershoot Arts and Music Festival held at Seattle Center. Kim Gordon, Freddie Gibbs, Aly & AJ, Cypress Hill and Marc Ribillet will also perform at the 51st edition of the festival, which is set to take place Aug. 31-Sept. 1.
The Labor Day weekend staple returned last year for its 50th anniversary with new production partners the New Rising Sun coalition, in the process bringing back a sense of local identity to the long-standing event.
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Last year’s return “was a huge success,” says McCaw Hall GM Joe Paganelli, who also co-leads New Rising Sun. “We wanted to realign the festival with Seattle’s changing growth, purpose and needs. We dug deep and invested heavily in visual arts and trying to create a spirit of discovery.”
After taking three and a half years off due to COVID-19, the revived festival saw great success last year with Pacific Northwest bands like Sleater-Kinney, Band of Horses and Sunny Day Real Estate on the bill. This year, organizers dug even deeper into the festival’s roots and brought back talent booker Chris Porter, who previously booked Bumbershoot for 18 years. Paganelli initially reached out to Porter for advice on the 2024 lineup before asking the veteran booker to return.
“I didn’t see it coming but I was very touched and honored,” says Porter, who adds that New Rising Sun was “bringing [the festival] back in the very similar spirit of eclecticism and discovery as we had done in years past, so I wanted to pick up where we left off.”
With a lineup that also includes Badbadnotgood, Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry, Carl Cox, Lee Fields, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, The Polyphonic Spree, Madison Cunningham and Andrew Bird, Porter focused on two main components to book this year’s festival: discovery and value.
“It’s great if people go to see their favorite bands or artists perform, but hopefully they’re going to find their new favorite band there too,” says Porter. “The only thing I wanted to do a little differently than last year is maybe broaden it a little bit, address some world/global music sounds more and stretch the demographics.”
The full Bumbershoot lineup also includes Acid Tongue, All Them Witches, Angélica Garcia, Automatic, Balthvs, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Corridor, Dean Johnson, Disq, Emi Pop, Flesh Produce, George Clanton, Gold Chisme, Grynch, Helado Negro, Hurray for the Riff Raff, I Dont Know How But They Found Me, k.flay, Kassa Overall, King Buffalo, Kultur Shock, Ladytron, Lemon Boy, Linda from Work, Lol Tolhurst x Budgie, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Mercury Rev, Moor Mother, NAVVI, Neal Francis, Oh, Rose, Parisalexa, Pink Siifu, Pom Pom Squad, Psymon Spine, Pure Bathing Culture, R E P O S A D O, Rocket, Spoon Benders, Squirrel Flower, Stephanie Anne Johnson, Sux, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, TEKE::TEKE, The Divorce, The Groovy Nobody, Thee Sacred Souls, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings, Tres Leches and Warren Dunes.
“We’re lucky to work in Seattle and doing this [festival] in this area. The community is very open-minded and open to discovering different sounds and different art,” says Porter. “It is really rewarding and I hope people like what we did this year.”
In addition to music, Bumbershoot will continue with its renowned visual arts component. The festival is reinforcing its commitment to the regional community with the return of fan favorites like the Fashion District, the Out of Sight exhibit and a film program while also introducing new programming including a unique partnership with NASA, a Bigfoot deepfake animation competition and more.
Additionally, the Century 21 District at the Pacific Science Center will feature a “Sculpture Parking Lot” featuring large-scale contemporary sculpture. “Songs for Space,” in partnership with NASA, will project James Webb Space Telescope images in the PACCAR IMAX theater alongside a range of different vocal groups, including gospel, opera and Gregorian chant.
The Recess District will present the art of performance with rollerskating, gymnastics, breakdancing, double-dutch jump rope and cheerleading as well as a skateboard competition and a wrestling showcase called Bumbermania!
New Rising Sun’s commitment to Bumbershoot is only in its second year, and Paganelli says growing the festival’s presence is a priority going forward. “We’re going to supercharge and expand the Bumbershoot brand with new and different opportunities throughout the year, which includes a brick-and-mortar venue that will harken back to Andy Warhol’s Factory,” he says. “Then there will be additional programming verticals coming out that we’re not prepared just yet to release but are in the planning process already.”
Tickets for the 2024 Bumbershoot Arts and Music Festival are on sale now. Head here to check out the full lineup along with the festival’s culinary and visual arts programming.
Seattle’s famed Bumbershoot music festival returns this fall with Washington natives Sleater-Kinney as headliners.
On Thursday (March 23), the music and arts festival announced their lineup with The Revivalists, Zhu, Jawbreaker, AFI, Brittany Howard, Fatboy Slim, Sunny Day Real Estate and Phantogram, among many others.
Band of Horses, Descendents, Matt and Kim, Bomba Estéreo, Durand Jones, Uncle Waffles, A-Trak, Valerie June, Ride, Benny the Butcher, Jacob Banks and more will also make appearances at the festival being held from Sept. 2-3 at Seattle Center. The Dip, Temples, Dandy Warhols, Hunx and His Punx, Thunderpussy, Reignwolf, Rebirth Brass Band, Screaming Females, The Black Tones and more will also make appearances at the festival that returns after a three-year hiatus. More artists are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
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Performers will grace multiple stages for their festival appearances. Bumbershoot will utilize spaces throughout the Seattle Center complex including Fisher Pavilion for Out of Sight and The Art Not Terminal for the Bumbershoot 50th Anniversary Retrospective for art installations.
This year’s festival will also mark the 50th anniversary of Bumbershoot and producers New Rising Sun, alongside partner/non-profit arts and education organization Third Stone, have launched the tuition-free Bumbershoot Workforce Development Program, designed to create a pipeline to support the next generation of music industry professionals and lay the groundwork for a more equitable and inclusive music scene. As part of Bumbershoot’s Workforce Development Program, Climate Pledge Arena will host students on a production tour of the arena giving future production and tour managers a live look at one of the busiest music venues in the world.
Third Stone, the non-profit arm of Bumbershoot, will launch the Workforce Development Program to offer young adults aged 17-25 the opportunity to learn critical business skills within the festival and live music setting. In partnership with The UC Theatre’s Concert Career Pathways (CCP) program, this six-month tuition-free, hands-on education experience and paid internship begins in April 2023 and will culminate in the opportunity to work on the grounds at the festival.
Weekend passes and single day tickets are available for purchase at bumbershoot.com. In celebration of the 50th anniversary, Bumbershoot and Amazon are offering prices 50% lower than when the event was last held in 2019 to create an opportunity for more of the Pacific Northwest community to enjoy the festival. Together with Third Stone, Amazon is also supporting the distribution of 5,000 free tickets directly to nonprofits and communities that have been underserved.
Check out the full lineup below.
🎵 YOUR MUSIC LINEUP IS HERE! 🎵 Join us in celebrating 50 years of Bumbershoot, a community-driven arts festival celebrating dreamers, makers, and performers! Explore more of this year’s talent and get your tickets at https://t.co/yJoG1ni2xu pic.twitter.com/47dyYA6oGQ— Bumbershoot (@bumbershoot2023) March 23, 2023
After a four-year hiatus, long-running Seattle music festival Bumbershoot will return this Labor Day weekend — with help from e-commerce giant Amazon.
As announced Tuesday (Feb. 21) by new Bumbershoot producer New Rising Sun, the festival will return for its 50th edition on Sept. 2-3, 2023, and Amazon has agreed to underwrite presale tickets for this year’s edition to keep it affordable. The e-retailer will sponsor a special early bird $50 single-day ticket and $85 two-day general admission ticket — prices that are 50% lower than when the event was last held in 2019. Amazon has also announced plans to work with arts organization Third Stone to give out 5,000 tickets to area non-profits and community organizations.
First launched in 1971, Bumbershoot faced a double whammy in recent years thanks to declining ticket sales and attendance in the 2010s followed by three years of closure due to the pandemic.
Bumbershoot was previously produced by AEG Presents, which had agreed to produce the festival with Seattle non-profit festival production company One Reel beginning in 2014 to help cover the $1 million in debt One Reel had racked up and restore the event’s financial footing. In 2019, AEG Pacific Northwest vp Rob Thomas announced the company was not renewing its agreement, hinting at financial differences with One Reel. That same year, a barricade collapse at Bumbershoot injured four attendees.
One Reel executives announced plans to stage the festival in 2020, only to be stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, host venue the Seattle Center put out a new request for proposals for the event, with the winning bid going to New Rising Sun, a collective founded by Neumos co-owner Steven Severin, who now serves as Bumbershoot’s co-president & director of music programming; Vital 5 Productions founder Greg Lundgren, who serves as curator; and McCaw Hall general manager Joe Paganelli, who serves as producer.
“We heard from our community and took action — fulfilling our promise of affordability and inclusivity,” Severin said in a statement to Billboard. “When re-imagining our festival for this return, we examined everything through an arts lens and expanded upon what art is and can be. We look forward to sharing our vision this Labor Day weekend.”
“As ticket prices steadily climb for concerts and events around the globe, we’re excited to support reduced and free ticket prices, creating opportunity for more of our community to enjoy the diversity of Seattle’s creative ecosystem, participate in Bumbershoot’s exciting education programs, and immerse themselves in the arts,” added Amazon senior vp/general counsel/secretary David Zapolsky.
Tickets go on sale Friday (Feb. 24) at 10:00 a.m. PT via bumbershoot.com. Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance as they are expected to sell quickly. A performer lineup will be announced at a later date.
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