Our arts critics have already recommended 72 great things to do this week and our music critics have picked the 46 best music shows, but there are still tons more events happening. To prevent some of the quirkier and more extraordinary ones from slipping through the cracks, we’ve compiled them here—from a night of ’60s Gay Camp Classics to Art Battle Seattle: Pride Edition, and from 1990s Beer Day on the anniversary of the end of Icelandic prohibition to Ace Comic Con. For even more options this week, check out our complete Things To Do calendar.
Found something you like and don’t want to forget about it later? Click “Save Event” on any of the linked events below to add it to your own private list.
Jump to: Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday
- Grill & Chill Series with Taylor Shellfish
Hang out in a beer garden and indulge in a summery feast of grilled oysters from Taylor Shellfish with crusty baguettes from Essential Baking, which should pair perfectly with Pine Box’s summer cocktail with lillet blanc, dry vermouth, grapefruit, and tonic. - Uncle Tony’s Block Party
The Edgewater Hotel, one of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite haunts, will honor the life of the intrepid chef and travel documentarian with a block party that includes a free cochina pig roast and appetizers and the “Hey Tony” Negroni (a take one of Bourdain’s preferred cocktails). Proceeds benefit Big Table, a local nonprofit that provides support for “restaurant and hospitality industry who are finding themselves in crisis, transition or falling through the cracks.”MUSIC
- #DieMadAboutIt
MorgueAnne and Amar Raine will host a night of “punk rock and activism” with music by Dirty White Pants and Chaotic Noise and special performances by their drag and burlesque artist friends Lazarus Rise, Mx Pux a Plenty, Lavish Leone, Smokey Brown, Baby Gurrrrl, and VooDoo Nightshade. They also promise cake, games, and prizes. - Jacqui Naylor
San Francisco-based jazz vocalist and songwriter Jacqui Naylor will return to Seattle for a night of smooth throwback jazz. - Windborne’s The Music of Queen
Witness the classic rock of Queen through an actually classical filter with this symphonic performance of all their hits.READINGS & TALKS
- Marc Vassallo: Little House in the City
Interested in the tiny house trend (a hot topic in urbanism), housing justice, and pro-density activism? Marc Vassallo’s Little House in the City: Living Small Within City Limits is a study of 37 such houses in America or Canada that measure 500 to 1800 square feet. - S7Writers-in-Residence Reading
Seattle7Writers will present highly varied work by multi-genre author and Cascadia Editors Collective cofounder Matthew Bryant, short story writer and novelist Cara Diaconoff, poet and fiction writer Apple Plotnick Jannotta, and memoirist Sarah Steinberg. - Trudy Kempton Dana: The Kemptons
The Kempton Ranch was once home to one of the largest horse and cattle operations in Montana, run by a family who descended from Mayflower pilgrims, Sioux Indians, and a Founding Father. Author Trudy Kempton Dana shares her family’s lore in this historical account. - Women in Conservation: Saving Local Species at Woodland Park Zoo
Three conservation experts will chat about saving endangered species in the PNW and in the wider world. Half of the proceeds will benefit efforts to save the endangered Western pond turtle and Oregon silverspot butterfly.TUESDAY-FRIDAY
VISUAL ART
- Abstraction Haiku
Seven Northwest abstract painters metaphorically fill in the space between two pieces in the permanent collection: John Franklin Koenig’s Lamento and the late Robert C. Jones’s Mermaid/Sphinx. The artists—Deanne Belinoff, Dede Falcone, Teresa Getty, Karey Kessler, Anna Macrae, Angela Wales, and Audrey Tulimiero Welch—mean to help visitors discover the diversity of abstract paintings.
Closing Friday - Carletta Carrington Wilson: field notes
This mixed-media collagist Carrington Wilson evokes the inventive languages used by enslaved black Americans who were forbidden from reading, writing, and gathering. She uses “twisted and knotted paper lines, botanical imagery, and symbolic objects.” Discover her take on memory, textile, and writing.
Closing FridayTUESDAY-SATURDAY
VISUAL ART
- Carole Barrer and Mark Butler: Expanse
These two artists paint glimpses of beautiful natural phenomena and expansive landscapes. According to the Harris Harvey Gallery, “Mark Butler’s atmospheric landscape paintings reveal his creative vision through loose layers of calligraphic brushwork that create pictorial depth” while Carole Barrer focuses on small, significant details like “a wisp of cirrus cloud, transformed by changing light.”
Closing Saturday - Jack Chevalier and John Anderson
Formally audacious figurative artist and Vietnam vet Chevalier combines images of movie stars and less recognizable people with geometric patterns and mysterious symbols. His paintings are paired with fellow Vashon Islander John Anderson’s nature photography.
Closing SaturdayTUESDAY-SUNDAY
VISUAL ART
- Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: In the Footsteps of My Ancestors
The visual art of storyteller, activist, and artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish/Cree/French), which celebrates nature and seeks to expose injustice, is featured in this spring exhibition.
Closing Sunday - Tyson Grumm
Whimsical surrealist Grumm returns to the Patricia Rovzar Gallery with some acrylic paintings, depicting silly and charming characters like his ping pong-playing ostrich and beaver or his gymnast donkey.
Closing SundayWEDNESDAY
FOOD & DRINK
- The World of Bitters
Bitters, which are made from various barks, roots, flowers, berries, seeds, and alcohol, were originally conceived as a tonic to aid health issues. Today, you know and love them in your favorite cocktails. Learn about the herbs used to make them and create your own bitters to take home.PERFORMANCE
- Over the Edge with Maritess
Maritess, “the only Filipina American professional stage hypnotist in the world,” will dazzle you with her mind powers.READINGS & TALKS
- Jonna Mendez: The Secret CIA Tactics That Won the Cold War
Hear secrets of the Cold War from none other than a former CIA spymaster, who’ll be reading from The Moscow Rules. She’ll go into how she and her husband, Antonio Mendez, managed to get around KGB surveillance via “Hollywood-inspired identity swaps, deception and evasion techniques, and document forgery.”VISUAL ART
- Cocktails and Clothing: Designing Sustainable Fashion
Party with designers who’re bucking the trend of fast fashion and its resultant environmental devastation by crafting upcycled garb. You’ll learn from Janelle Abbott of Femail and Mia Peoples, shop at pop-ups by Zakiya Cita of the Chayah Movement and Prairie Underground, and witness a live sketch by fashion illustrator Galina Adzhigirey. Your ticket includes a cocktail.WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
VISUAL ART
- Marit Berg and Steve Gawronski
Marit Berg’s work often depicts landscapes, flora and fauna, and water, with an emphasis on the environmental crisis. A portion of sales of her honeybee series will go to the Honey Bee Conservancy. Steve Gawronski’s past works include concrete, wood, and metal sculpture as well as painting; his new show focuses on “form, materials, and the human condition.”
Closing SaturdayWEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCE
- Behold the Dreamers
A small Cameroonian family is trying to make it in America when the economy takes a dive. Imbolo Mbue’s novel will be adapted for the stage by Myra Platt, who’ll also direct. - Venardos Circus
This animal-free circus with a Broadway musical-style format promises aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, contortionists, comedy, “daredevilry,” magic, and more.VISUAL ART
- Inked
Columbia City Gallery members Tina Albro, Annie Lewis, Joan Mamelok, and Jueun Shin experiment with different types of printmaking, including 3D pieces.
Opening WednesdayTHURSDAY
COMEDY
- Chris Mejia
Puerto Rico-born, Florida-raised Chris Mejia, who’s opened for Jak Knight, Langston Kerman, and Kiry Shabazz, will tell jokes on topics both silly (pop culture) and serious (life as a person of color, lupus). - We Are Family: A Queer Comedy Show
Feel great about spending your dollars at this queer comedy showcase benefitting the GSBA Scholarship Fund, which helps LGBTQ and allied students go to college. Claire Webber and Jim Webber will host, and Val Nigro, Paul Curry, Clara Pluton, Rick Taylor, and Nancy Jean Naly will crack wise.COMMUNITY
- grand opening of glassybaby downtown
Celebrate the newest location of glassybaby by purchasing blown-glass votive candle holders and drinking glasses to support the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation.FILM
- Cephalopod Movie Night With Science Friday
Celebrate cephalopods (that’s squid, octopus, nautilus, and other mollusk-related species) and the scientists who study them by seeing four original short films from public radio show Science Friday. - Cuddle: The Series – Official Launch Party
Binge-watch the first season of Cuddle, a new Seattle-made, women-led original comedy series about a professional “cuddle therapist” and her search for human connection. The cast and filmmakers will be in attendance. - Gay Camp Classics
What better time to revisit campy gay short films from the ’60s, presented by Scarecrow and Something Weird, than during Pride Week? What Really Happened to Baby Jane (“a spirited reimagining of the Crawford/Davis classic”), Always on Sunday (a boring bar turns abruptly fabulous), and Spy on the Fly (in which Agent 0069’s goes after Fonda Peters) were made by the Gay Girls Riding Club. DJ Risk Management will open the event with some tunes.FOOD & DRINK
- You Can’t Eat Mt. Rainier – Seattle in the 1950’s
Taking its inspiration from the 1955 book You Can’t Eat Mount Rainier by Seattle Times columnist and “self-made historian” William C. Speidel (known for inventing the Seattle Underground tour), this pop-up dinner will recreate recipes from bygone Seattle restaurants of the ’50s.MUSIC
- Iconz
Revel in pride with DJs spinning Madonna, Prince, and other classics, plus tribute performances by Monday Mourning, Amora Dior Black, LaSaveona Hunt, Hellen Tragedy, Eucalypstick, Baby Guuurl, Butylene O’Kipple, and CarLarans. - Justice Yeldham, Jerry Core, Corey Brewer, Happiness Forever, Power Skeleton, Bombthreat23
Have you ever smushed your face up against a piece of glass and discovered all the cool/gross noises you can make with your mouth? That’s exactly what Justice Yeldham does in this amusing and oddly mesmerizing musical performance, which he’ll bring to Seattle on his USA 2019 Tour. He’ll be joined by locals Jerry Core, Corey Brewer, Happiness Forever, Power Skeleton, and Bombthreat23.PERFORMANCE
- Man of La Mancha
Cervantes’s classic work Don Quixote, which gave the world the adjective “quixotic,” was adapted in the 1960s by Dale Wasserman into a touching and wildly successful musical. The dying Don Quixote, about to be tried by the Inquisition, recalls his life as a noble yet deluded adventurer. Windmills are battled, ladies of the night are mistaken for nobility, and audiences are made to weep in joyful melancholy. This production is “re-imagined for the contemporary stage.” - Soft Shock: PRIDE OR DIE!
Love scary drag? Get your butt to this show hosted by Voodoo Nightshade and Los Angeles “guest ghoul” Xochi Mochi, seen on Dragula.READINGS & TALKS
- Amy Gulick: The Salmon Way
Award-winning writer and photographer Gulick will present her beautiful photobook The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind, a visual testament to “salmon culture in Alaska” and the place that salmon have in the human and natural environment. - Indie Author Night
Meet a blitz of 20 local authors, who’ll each get two minutes to pitch their books before you line up to buy their wares and chat. Participants will include everyone from picture book author Brenda Baker to historical writer Flora Burlingame to novelist Jennifer Haupt. - Papeachu Review Release Party
Celebrate the second issue of Papeachu Review, a new bi-annual literary journal highlighting female and non-binary writers. At this event, local contributors will read their featured work. - Signs, Seals and Sigils: The Occult Science of Magic Script
William Kiesel, owner of the esoteric bookshop Mortlake & Co. and publisher of Ouroboros Press, will trach a class on “magical alphabets, asemic writing and the diverse symbols, signs and signets of practical occultism.”VISUAL ART
- Art Battle Seattle: Pride Edition
Queer local painters will compete to snag the prize at this 20-minute-long competition. The paintings will be available afterward for a silent auction. Crescent Lounge’s Marc Anderson will host, and DJ Nightwatch plus Zsa Zsa Dingo, Holli B. Sinclair, and Cosmella Bella will ensure you’re entertained.WEED
- Dockside Ballard’s One Year Canniversary Party
The Ballard location of Dockside will celebrate one year around the sun with $1 prerolls from Fainting Goat, discounts on brands like Heylo and Boggy Boon, live music from the Evanstones, and the Cheesesteak Madness food truck. Plus, lawn games, a pinata, and (non-infused) edible samples.THURSDAY-SATURDAY
PRIDE
- Introvert Pride Festival
Celebrate Pride without sacrificing your affinity for silent reading and chill hangs.VISUAL ART
- Angélica Maria Millán Lozano and Camilo Godoy: Lugar del Trabajo
These two artists, born in Bogotá, Colombia and now based in New York, reflect on memory, ritual, the past, the news, and our current situation through photography, textiles, video, and 2D works.
Opening ThursdayFRIDAY
COMEDY
- Can You Handle It?
Two of the funniest improv comedians around, Graham Downing and Michael Castillo, will host people in the community for “a big dumb gay talk show” about the things they can and cannot handle.FILM
- Panther Squad
Watch a ridiculous Franco-Belgian-Spanish coproduction from 1984 about ecoterrorist kidnappers and the black leather-clad badasses who try to stop them from taking over the world. Courtesy of the VHS fiends at Grand Illusion.FOOD & DRINK
- 1990s Beer Day
If you wanted to drink beer with more than 2.25% alcohol content in Iceland from 1915 to 1989, you had to get your hands on a bootlegged bottle. Celebrate the anniversary of strong beers’ legalization in the Nordic country by dressing in your best ’90s outfit for a night of brews and raffles. - Fika Friday
Take some time to observe the Swedish custom of Fika (a moment in the afternoon to enjoy treats and snacks) at this free event.MUSIC
- The Emo Night Tour
Drown your teenage dirtbag sorrows in the pop-punk lamentations of Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, My Chemical Romance, and more at this sad-sack live set from tribute band the Emo Night Tour. - Festival of Friends Events Presents: Classic Rock Radio!
Musicians from various bands will mish-mash together to play a melange of hits from the ’60s through the ’90s. The fun part? They’ll get no rehearsal time. - Green Lake Basement, Nedder, EMOtional Distress, All Hype
Emo pop-punk quartet Green Lake Basement will present a night of “nostalgic sing-alongs” from the early-’00s. Sad-dance to their set after openers Nedder, EMOtional Distress, and All Hype. - HER Seattle: Queerdom
The Northwest Queer Kingdom will gather for a night of courtship among “sexy kings, majestic queers, charming princes, fair ladies, and naughty jesters.” Performers include D Dynasty and DJs Mary Jane Mancilla and MIXX America. - LDW, The Jauntee, Tryin’
Talking Heads cover band Life During Wartime will do their best to recreate David Byrne’s killer dance moves and boundless freaky energy. They’ll headline after opening sets from the Jauntee and Tryin’. - PRIDE NEON Nights! Black Light Underwear Party
Dress as scantily clad as you wish—so long as you’re sporting some neon—for this Pride party complete with drink specials, sexy dudes who will allow you to paint their bodies, and free parking. - PRIDE Weekend Silent Disco Kickoff Party
Put on some headphones and kick off your Pride weekend with a silent disco.PARTIES
- Margarita Madness Party Cruise
Sip a margarita (or your other favorite summer cocktail) and snack on appetizers aboard the Waterways yacht.PERFORMANCE
- The Disabled List
Seattle poets, comedians, storytellers, and other performers with disabilities will return after a sold-out edition of this show in March. - #PrideBody
Honor your bod by dancing and enjoying sexy drag and burlesque hosted by Isabella Extynn and starring CarLarans, Atasha Manila, Vincent Milay, and La Gaviota. - Jason Webley and friends in Seattle – Flotsam! Benefit
Everett accordion player and troubadour Jason Webley and a troupe of musicians, circus performers, and puppeteers will float through Seattle (literally—they’re touring on a homemade raft) for a fun and silly show. - Them Fatales: A Non-Binary Revue for Seattle Pride 2019
Sexy enbies will tantalize your queer eyes with stripper moves at this prideful evening, featuring host EmpeROAR Fabulous!!!, Lazarus Rise, Malone Wolfe, Pique A Boo, and Whisper DeCorvo.READINGS & TALKS
- Charles Fishman: One Giant Leap
If you enjoyed the thrilling documentary Apollo 11, you should attend this talk by the author of One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon, which goes over more of the story—namely the technology behind the space program flight and the people who worked on it.FRIDAY-SATURDAY
COMEDY
- Best of Portland Queer Comedy Festival
Portland has sent some of its funniest queers to enliven Seattle comedy clubs during Pride time: Belinda Carroll, D Martin Austin, Jenna Vesper, and Rick Taylor. - Jared Freid
New York comedian and podcast host Freid (Vidiots, NFL Full Contact, MTV’s Failosophy, NBC’s The Today Show, Gotham Comedy Live) will provoke some West Coast laughs.WEED
- CBD Expo Northwest
Learn all about CBD and its non-psychoactive properties by attending demonstrations and workshops (including a DIY Mixology Lab).VISUAL ART
- Becky Street: Just Enough
Street’s ultra-pared-down still lifes and designs exemplify her search for simplicity and her attention to “what is left out.”
Closing SaturdayFRIDAY-SUNDAY
GEEK
- ACE Comic Con Seattle 2019
If you missed the Emerald City Comic Con this year, here’s another chance to meet all your favorite on-screen superheroes (like Chris Evans, Lee Pace, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, and Don Cheadle), plus over 60 comic creators and over 100 vendors and exhibitors.FESTIVALS
- Any Patch of Grass Festival
APOG was started by a group of friends who decided to remake a pleasant fest experience they once shared by revamping it with two days of community-focused live music and art out in a PNW forest. - Solfest
This festival will feature live music and performances, arts and crafts, a Ufologist panel discussion, and more to celebrate the spiritual, celestial, and earthly implications of the summer solstice.SATURDAY
COMEDY
- Cherish or Perish
Comedians Amanda Gemmill and Desirae McCain invite you to revisit the cult films from yesteryear—like Bound and But I’m a Cheerleader, by the looks of it—and see if they’re as good as you remember.COMMUNITY
- Bremerton Bridge Blast
Can’t wait until next week for Fourth of July fireworks? Get an early show at this impressive show that boasts itself as “the largest display of fireworks anywhere.”< - Red, White & Zoo
The zoo’s orangutans, lemurs, pigs, gorillas, and other animals will be treated to star-shaped popsicles, watermelons, and corn on the cob for Independence Day.FESTIVALS
- Parke Diem 2019
Volunteer Park will fill with music, art installations, food trucks, and family-friendly games.FILM
- Aperture 2019: Student Film Showcase
Watch new films by the students of the local queer/POC-positive film program Blanket Fort.FOOD & DRINK
- Burger Brawl Pop-Up
Eight food trucks will jockey to produce the juiciest burger creation.GEEK
- What Went Wrong in Westeros (and Why)
Storyteller, filmmaker, and former Stranger staffer Bret Fetzer will present What Went Wrong in Westeros (and Why), a “dramaturgical analysis/fan fiction rewrite of the last four episodes of Game of Thrones, performed on a tabletop using common household objects (with footnotes).” Process your feelings over the show’s last season (rage, loyalty, whatever) and discover some alternatives to how things played out.MUSIC
- Prom Date Mixtape
Let ’80s new wave and synth-pop tribute group Prom Date Mixtape take you back a few decades for a night of high-energy dance music. - Thank U, Next
Whip your high pony around to tracks that graced our Top 40 pop charts this year, with hits by all your favorite “Dangerous Women” in music. - TRL Summer Lovin’ Edition: #ALL4DORAS, DJ Pryme, DJ Lo Knows
“Seattle’s only tribute boyband” #ALL4DORAS and DJs Pryme and Lo Knows will bring you Top 40 summer jams all night.PERFORMANCE
- Barvinok 15th Anniversary Gala Concert
Take in an evening of lively Ukrainian music and dance while you tuck into some traditional food from the Eastern European country. - Belly Dance Spectacular 8
Dancer and teacher Amira, her pals, and her students will undulate their bellies and twirl hula hoops to raise money for the Refugee Women’s Alliance. - Countess LuAnn and Friends
Catch up with Luann de Lesseps of Real Housewives of New York, whom TV Guide apparently recently named “the #1 Housewife by TV Guide, topping all 46 housewives across all franchised cities.” It looks like she’ll be touring with a musical cabaret show about her experiences on TV. - Pride Party
Have some midday Pride fun in a “flamingo-and-glitter-infused playground that will make Pee Wee’s Playhouse look like your grandpa’s unfinished basement,” with frozen drinks, DJs, and performances by Fishnet, Ru Tang Clan, and others.SPORTS & RECREATION
- Country Hustle 5K & Boot Kickin’ Relay
Choose between a 5K or relay race in your cowboy hat at this Western-themed affair.VISUAL ART
- John Rizzotto: Good Fortune
This realist painter presents evocative still life compositions of fruit, Asian decorative elements, cloth, and antiques.
Closing SundaySATURDAY-SUNDAY
FESTIVALS
- NorthWest Flow Fest Wonder
Want to learn circus and flow arts (a practice that combines dance, juggling, fire-spinning, and object manipulation) from trained instructors? Master your newly acquired skills by day and participate in jams and performances by night at this fourth annual event. - Shoreline Arts Festival
Browse an art market with more than 70 vendors, see dance and live music performances, peruse art and photography by adults and youth, and check out the “cultural rooms” offering knowledge, samples, and activities.READINGS & TALKS
- Locus Awards Weekend 2019
Now in its 51st year, Locus sci-fi fan magazine will distribute awards to some of the best in the field. More draws: a party for renowned speculative author Elizabeth Hand, a “donut salon,” and “a Hawaiian shirt plus trivia contest judged by the fabulous [futurist-feminist author] Connie Willis.”SUNDAY
COMEDY
- Little House of Green Gables
Unexpected Productions will improvise an early 20th-century coming-of-age story à la Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables.FESTIVALS
- Guelaguetza 2019
Head to Grupo Cultural Oaxaqueño’s family-friendly celebration of music and dance from Oaxaca, Mexico. - Midsommarfest
Celebrate the summer solstice the traditional Swedish way with Nordic folk musicians and dancers, Scandinavian delicacies, crafts at the Hemslöjdsmarknad, and the raising of a garlanded Midsommar pole, followed by a dance around it.FOOD & DRINK
- The Great Machine House Bake Off
Can’t get enough Great British Bake-Off? At Machine House’s “mildly competitive” monthly potluck, watch contestants vie to turn out the best cakes, pies, breads, and loaves, judged by votes from other participants and patrons (one drink buys you one voting token). Competitors can win bonus points for including Machine House brews in their bakes, and the baker with the most tokens at the end of the six months will be crowned the victor and win a $100 gift card, trophy, and custom bake-off champion apron. - Raised Doughnuts Is One!
Celebrate Raised Doughnuts’ first year of business with complimentary cake and doughnut holes, plus free stickers of owner Mi Kim’s dog, Noodle.MUSIC
- Shafty – Portland’s Tribute to Phish
Proud Phisheads, unite: Portland tribute band Shafty will bring you all the highly extended genre-blending jams your heart desires.PERFORMANCE
- Malavika: A Classical Indian Dance-theater Production
Adapted from Malavikagnimitram, a love story by the ancient Indian poet Kalidasa, this Hindi music and dance extravaganza blends Kuchipudi (Indian classical) and Garba/Raas (Indian folk) dances set to classical Hindi soundtracks interspersed with poetic dialogue. - No Closet Follies Vol 2: The Not So Vanilla Show
If you love kink in public, watch Nox Falls, Al Lykya and Perry Von Winkle, Carlotta, Shakin, and plenty of others flaunt their skills with latex, rope, and other deviant accouterments.READINGS & TALKS
- Nada Bakos: The Life of a CIA Terrorist Hunter
Former CIA officer Bakos will tell her story, reading from her book The Targeter: My Life in the CIA, Hunting Terrorists and Challenging the White House, which touches on her search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and her investigation of the White House’s assertion that the Iraqi government was involved in 9/11.<bSPORTS & RECREATION
- 15th Annual Green Lake Open Water Swim
It’s finally warm enough to swim in Green Lake, which calls for this annual half-mile or full-mile race (with prizes!).
TUESDAY
FOOD & DRINK
