Bumbershoot was missing from the local festival scene the past few years and to call its comeback earlier this month a massive success is an understatement.
New organizers New Rising Sun and Third Stone reimagined the festival as a smaller event with an emphasis on the arts to celebrate the Bumbershoot’s 50th anniversary. The result was a Bumbershoot infused with a personality that screamed Seattle, unlike the fest’s last few iterations when corporate megapromoter AEG was running the show.
While it was a downsized version of itself, the year’s festival was one of the best Bumbershoots I’ve attended out of the more than 20 times I’ve visited the Seattle Center campus during the annual Labor Day weekend event. Not only did it feel great to be back at Bumbershoot, it felt like a truly authentic and uniquely Seattle experience which is always what makes Bumbershoot feel so special compared to other local festivals.
Here are the highlights from what I experienced during my two days at Bumbershoot 2023:
The most Seattle moment
It could be argued that the entire event itself was the most Seattle moment. The triumphant return of one of the crown jewels of Seattle’s music scene is a big deal. However, it was a moment within the larger moment that was Bumbershoot 2023 that felt like the most Seattle experience to me.
It happened during the first night of the festival when co-headliners Sleater-Kinney and Sunny Day Real Estate played briefly overlapping sets. Transitioning from watching Sunny Day Real Estate play the final notes of their set in the shadow of the Space Needle, to being in awe of Corin Tucker’s powerful, unmistakable, force-of-nature vocals while standing on the rim of the International Fountain underneath a canopy of stars, felt about as Seattle as an Amazon employee sipping on a cup of Starbucks while watching the Pike Place fish throwers fling salmons through Pike Place Market.
The return to the stage you should’ve seen
You could say Fatboy Slim was the biggest return to the stage at this year’s festival considering prior to Bumbershoot he hadn’t performed in Seattle in more than two decades. But this honor doesn’t go to Norman Cook. Local underground jazz hero Skerik made a triumphant return to the stage after several months of being unable to perform due to an undisclosed medical condition.
Earlier this year Skerik, who is known for his work with Mad Season, Les Claypool, Critters Buggin and his own projects, went to the doctor with a sore neck and it developed into a undiagnosed condition that left him in a position where he could barley move. A successful Go Fund Me campaign helped him have the funds to make up for lost work, and more importantly get proper medical care, so he could recover from his injuries.
During the tail end of The True Loves early afternoon set bandleader Jimmy James introduced Skerik as a special guest. He sat in for two blazing, set-ending songs and the crowd ate up every second of his saxophone superiority. Welcome back Skerik.
The coolest venue you maybe didn’t get into
Located around the corner from Bumbershoot’s Fashion District, The Vera Project was the festival’s only indoor stage. It was the smallest capacity stage and because of space limitations there almost always was a line of people waiting to get into the venue.
But once you were in The Vera Project it was easily the coolest place to see music thanks to a spacious lobby with walls covered in concert posters, easily accessible bathrooms and a great-sounding room for music. Plus, not only was The Vera Project air conditioned, literally making it the festival’s coolest venue, it also hosted some of the best sets of the weekend including Girl Trouble, Spirit Award, Screaming Females and THEM.
The best cover song of the weekend
I was excited to catch up-and-comers THEM’s set at the Vera Project and their set of catchy, poppy tunes did not disappoint. The entire set was great, but the standout moment came during the second song when the group’s vocalist announced they were going to play a cover of a song from another local artists. The Head and the Heart’s “Rivers and Roads.” It was great to see the influence a relatively more recent successful Seattle artist had on one of the scene’s rising stars.
Honorable mention goes to Sleater-Kinney who ended their set with Sinead O’Connor’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
The cool thing you had to pay extra to see
Technically the laser shows at Pacific Science Center’s Laser Dome weren’t a part of Bumbershoot’s programming, but that didn’t stop the folks at PacSci from programming some special laser shows in honor of Bumbershoot.
One of those shows was Laser Pearl Jam and for $12 you could get a 50-minute live laser blast of Pearl Jam. There were other special laser shows featuring other artists during the weekend as well, all of which I don’t remember, but I knew I would not have been doing my duty as a Seattle music journalist if I didn’t investigate a laser Pearl Jam experience. I will probably write more about that experience at a later date, but for now all I will say about it is that it was worth the extra charge.
The cool thing you didn’t know about
Did you know there was a secret petting zoo at Bumbershoot? Well, it was sort of secret.
It was sort of secret because you couldn’t access it with a ticket. But you could access the petting zoo if you were a performer. The organizers of Bumbershoot arranged for a nice hospitality area for performers and it included a masseuse, chiropractor, bar and a small fenced-off area that housed a petting zoo. The petting zoo had pygmy goats, chickens, rabbits, a tiny capybara-like rodent and a seven-month-old wallaby.
The best place to spend down time
Bumbershoot 2023 made an extra effort this year to be as accessible as possible for those with financial barriers and physical barriers. There were ASL interpreters for some artists, captions on video screens during performances and several wheelchair accessible viewing areas.
While those accessibility improvements were all needed, in my opinion one of the better accessibility additions was the quiet room in The Armory. Located on the third floor of the Armory, the quiet room made for a great place for anyone with sensory issue of anyone who just needed a break from the business and noisiness of Bumbershoot.
The biggest dance party
Bumbershoot 2023 featured plenty of great music of all genres to dance to, from local rockers Long Dark Moon to New Orleans’ Rebirth Brass Band. But the artist who held the biggest dance party by far was Fatboy Slim. His set was a non-stop 90-minute dance party complete with a stellar light show, lasers and a giant video screen. Fatboy Slim had everybody Rockafeller Skanking during every second of his performance. Getting him to play the festival was a genius booking decision and one helluva fun way to end the return of Seattle’s Music and Arts festival.
The biggest distraction from music
Two words: Cat Circus. That’s all. Cat Circus.
For more coverage of Bumbershoot 2023 check out the links below or visit Guerrilla Candy’s Bumbershoot 2023 hub.
