Maszer plays J&M at last years Upstream festival. This year the fest will be from June 1-3.
Maszer played J&M at last year's Upstream festival. This year the fest will be from June 1-3. JORDAN NICHOLSON

Looks like it’s time to start thinking about Upstream again (because hey, it’s only 175 days away!). Paul Allen’s ginormous, regionally-focused music festival in downtown Seattle will be June 1-3 this year, and early bird ticket sales start today. No word yet on the lineup, but former Crocodile booker Meli Darby returns as the fest's lead curator, so based on the wide breadth of the hundreds of bands that performed there last year, expect good things.

Some other news about the festival:

• Darby will work with a host of returning guest curators including: Barsuk Records, Do206, Duck Club Touring, MILLI, POSSI, Sound Off!, Starbucks, Sub Pop Records, The Residency, Upper Left, and Votiv.

• Upstream has partnered with Recording Academy Pacific Northwest Chapter for the Upstream Summit, which has been shortened to one day this year (Friday, June 1). The summit will still include keynotes (last year’s keynote by Quincy Jones kicked ass), panels and “breakout” sessions—small groups of musicians talking to industry professionals. And Upstream has been working with KEXP, MoPOP and the Recording Academy on the excellent and free <Mastering the Hustle series, and other yearlong programming to help musicians improve their business acumen.

• The main stage area has been consolidated into the North (parking) Lot of CenturyLink Field, which will have two stages—the Amazon Main Stage and KEXP Stage, and will also be called the “Sound Lot.”

We’ll keep you updated on the lineup and other announcements as they happen.