Bumbershoot calls itself a music & arts festival for good reason. While the festival’s largest draws – performers like John Legend, Fergie, Wu-Tang Clan and The Shins – are musical acts, Bumbershoot also brings in world-class art in a variety of other mediums.
This year’s lineup offers a slew of opportunities to experience some remarkably innovative and inspiring projects. Here are a few of the highlights!
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FOUND Magazine: Saturday, 1:45 pm (Literary Arts Stage)
This year's literary stage features an event by Found Magazine, a compelling collection of found notes, letters, photographs, illustrations, and the like, based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Kicking off a nationwide tour, the performance at Bumbershoot will also celebrate the official release of FOUND Magazine’s fifth issue. FOUND editor and creator Davy Rothbart will share new found items with the audience, and his brother and co-editor Peter Rothbart will perform songs he's written based on FOUND submissions. Attendees are urged to bring heir own finds to share.
Photo by David Meiklejohn
FOUND Magazine visits the Literary
Arts Stage on Saturday at 1:45 pm.
In addition to the FOUND #5 event on the Literary Arts Stage, FOUND will also exhibit hundreds of submissions at the Vera Project during Bumbershoot. Viewers will be able to look at the submitted finds along with the envelopes they were sent in and notes from the original finders.
"I’m so lucky to be able to open such amazing mail with fantastic finds every day,” said Rothbart. “I wanted to reproduce the experience for others."
The FOUND installation will be on display at the Vera Project, in the Snoqualmie Room of the Seattle Center throughout the duration of Bumbershoot.
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I Love Led Zeppelin: Saturday, 3:45 pm (Boeing Stage)
Comic book artist Ellen Forney presents a multimedia showcase crafted around her book I Love Led Zeppelin. The performance includes a multimedia adaptation of her comics with flash animations, audio, and personal narration - a novel approach to traditionally one-dimensional book readings.
Forney has recruited writer Whitney Pastorek to emcee, and Soulful hard rock band the Dt's will perform both original songs and Led Zeppelin covers as part of the event. Forney has also enlisted the talents of burlesque dancer Miss Indigo Blue, who will perform a number that Forney assures us is fabulous.
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On The Boards: I Just Want to Dance-12 Minutes Max: Monday, 1 pm (Boeing Stage)
On the Boards is a contemporary performing arts center located in lower Queen Anne. The Bumbershoot show will be a special, all-dance edition of On The Boards' long-running series 12 Minutes Max, in which artists are given a limited amount of time to experiment with new material and works in progress.
The event will feature six different dance performances including a presentation of Dancepod, a unique internet-based dance project inspired by local artist Alice de Muizon. Dancepod consists of short dance videos which can be downloaded onto personal electronic devices. The concept is radically different from the established method of creating and presenting a work of modern dance.
"Dancepod for me was a reaction against creating work for the theater and playing the grants game,” said de Muizon. “I no longer felt like spending a whole year making a piece that would be performed three or four times, that would cost me too much, both emotionally and financially.”
De Muizon and her husband, composer Paul Moore, try to create each Dancepod in just one day - the idea being that a piece can be choreographed, shot, edited, scored, uploaded online, and downloaded onto a person's ipod in a relatively short period of time.
"The rule remains that we can't spend a bunch of time polishing whatever we're doing, which I know is a weird rule, but it's working for us now," said De Muizon.
On The Boards: I Just Want to Dance- 12 Minutes Max takes place on Monday, September 3rd, from 1-2 pm on The Boeing Performing Arts Stage.
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Flatstock: all weekend (Fisher Pavilion)
Bumbershoot also features a number of ongoing exhibitions that are accessible throughout the weekend, such as the American Poster Institute’s Flatstock 14. Flatstock is a comprehensive exhibition of event poster art from around the US and beyond.
"If you're into art and music, Flatstock is the best candy store you've been to, said Flatstock Seattle director Laura Stalions. “Not only do you get to indulge in gluttonous pleasure, but you get to chat with the people that spoon feed you all the sweetness."
Flatstock originated in San Francisco in 2002, and has since become an annual staple at South By Southwest music festival in Austin, TX, the Pitchfork music festival in Chicago, and the Reeperbaum festival in Hamburg, Germany, as well as Bumbershoot. This year's exhibition at Bumbershoot will showcase the work of 70 different artists.
In addition to viewing the art and meeting the designers, at Flatstock one can also purchase any poster for a reasonable price.
"Imagine [going to] an incredible art museum and buying the painting on the wall for $25," said Stalions.
Flatstock 14 will be on display in the Fisher Pavilion all weekend.
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Miranda July: Learning to Love You More, all weekend (NW Rooms)
When asked who they were most looking forward to seeing at Bumbershoot, performers interviewed for this story repeatedly brought up the name Miranda July. July has become a superstar in recent years, following the success of her debut feature-length film Me and You and Everyone We Know, and her first major book No One Belongs Here More Than You.
Photo by Todd Cole
Miranda July presents Learning to Love You More
on Monday at 8:30 on the Boeing Stage.
July is performing at 3 different events during Bumbershoot. On display throughout the festival in the Seattle Center's Northwest Rooms is an exhibit titled Learning to Love You More (LTLYM), an extension of July’s interactive art website. The site offers an array of eclectic assignments for readers to complete and submit, such as number 9: “Draw a constellation from someone’s freckles,” or number 56: “Make a portrait of you friend's desires." The website collects assignments from anyone who wishes to contribute, and the work sometimes finds its way into galleries or onto the LTLYM website.
One Capitol Hill family – the Olivers - has been working to complete all 63 assignments from the LTLYM website, and all of their work will be shown as part of the LTLYM exhibit in the Northwest Rooms, along with work by Portland artist and LTLYM co-founder Harell Fletcher.
On Monday, September 3rd, July will host a multimedia event based on her forthcoming book Learning to Love You More, scheduled for release in October. The event takes place from 8:30 to 9:45 pm on the Boeing Performing Arts Stage.
Monday also offers a screening of July in September: The Short Films of Miranda July, a collection of short films made by July between 1998 and 2001. The films will be shown as a part of the One Reel Film Festival in the McCaw Lecture Hall on Monday from 7-8 pm.
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Who's playing music at Bumbershoot this year? Plenty of people: over 100 musical artists will be performing throughout the weekend. Here are a few acts you should do your best not to miss:
Local band The Cops will be playing the Sound Transit Stage on Saturday afternoon.
"I have to admit I'm excited to be playing a stage that is sponsored by our city's public transportation system," said singer and guitarist Michael Jaworski.
Photo by Curt Doughty
Seattle band The Cops tears up the Samsung Stage on
Sunday at 1:15 pm.
The Cops will be performing as a 5 piece band at Bumbershoot, and plan to include multimedia into their set, which Jaworski says "should be interesting."
Los Angeles rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will be playing the Samsung Mainstage (Memorial Stadium) on Sunday afternoon at 1:15 p
m. They'll be promoting their third full length CD, Baby 81.
On Monday evening, the legendary psychedelic rock pioneer Roky Erickson will be performing with his band The Explosives
. This is a rare chance to see Erickson, as it's one of just a handful of shows he's scheduled to play after a 20 year period of musical inactivity.
Erickson co-founded the band 13th Floor Elevators in 1965. He is credited with both coining the term "Psychedelic Rock," and influencing countless bands, such as The White Stripes, ZZ Top, and Sonic Youth. Erickson and The Explosives will perform on Monday at 6:45 on the Starbucks Stage.
Check here for a complete schedule of events at Bumbershoot. For tickets and other information, check out
Bumbershoot online.
