Many folks were skeptical last year when local production company New Rising Sun announced plans to revive Bumbershoot as the smaller, more arts-focused community festival for which it was once known. But they pulled it off. More than 40,000 people attended Bumbershoot 2023. Even with some bad weather, it was a fun weekend full of wrestling, immersive art exhibits, witches, cats, and pretty much every band I loved in high school, including Jawbreaker, the Descendents, Sunny Day Real Estate, and AFI.
Sure, that may be a relatively small attendance number compared to the 80,000-plus tickets the festival reportedly sold in 2015 when they had massive headliners like the Weeknd, Chance the Rapper, and Faith No More playing at the Memorial Stadium, but organizers counted it as a success. So much so that they're doing it again.
This Labor Day weekend, August 31-September 1, Bumbershoot will return to the Seattle Center with similar diverse arts-forward programming. The Fashion District, the Recess District, and the geometric domes (cat circus!) will all be back in action, and organizers are adding a Comedy Dome, an Animation District, and the Century 21 District, which will pair live music with deep space in the Pacific Science Center's PACCAR IMAX theater.
Also new this year? The Bigfoot Deepfake Competition, which is actually a really smart way to maybe finally catch the real Bigfoot in action because that motherfucker is very litigious! He'll be running out of the woods waving a cease and desist letter in no time.
Single-day passes start at $70 and two-day passes start at $125—they're one sale now at bumbershoot.com.
Looking for the music lineup? That'll be released later this spring. Let the guessing games begin!
