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Event Information:
Bumbershoot is an annual
international music and arts
festival held in Seattle,
Washington. One of North America's
largest such festivals, it takes
place every Labor Day weekend at the
74 acre Seattle Center,
which was built for the 1962 World's
Fair. Seattle Center includes indoor
theaters, outdoor stages, McCaw
Hall, and Memorial Stadium. The name
of the festival was taken from
bumbershoot, a colloquial term for
umbrella, probably coined in the
19th century a portmanteau of the
words umbrella and parachute.
Bumbershoot began as a city-funded
arts and music festival called
"Mayor's Arts Festival", also known
as "Festival '71", held at Seattle
Center on August 13–15, 1971. This
event had a total attendance of
125,000 visitors. Amidst the local
economic depression triggered by the
near collapse of Boeing, the
festival attempted to revive local
spirits, and was the largest event
held in Seattle Center since the
1962 World's Fair. Talk radio host
Irving Clark Jr. chaired the fair
committee, and avant-garde
impresario Anne Focke used one-fifth
of that for light shows (which
incorporated lasers, still something
of a novelty at that time), computer
graphics, enormous inflatable soft
sculptures by the Land Truth
Company, and an electronic jam
session. Other events included
dance, theater, folk music, arts and
crafts, art cars, body painting, a
Miss Hot Pants Contest, amateur
motorcycle races, and one
out-of-town performer: country
singer Sheb Wooley.
Seattle Center is a park and arts
and entertainment center in Seattle,
Washington. The 74-acre (300,000 m2)
campus is the site used in 1962 by
the Century 21 Exposition. It is
located just north of Belltown in
the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.
Bumbershoot has signed numerous key
national sponsors, including
Rockstar Energy Drink and Starbucks,
whose name was attached to key
presentation venues (the "Rockstar
Vert Ramp"). The apparent attempt at
co-opting media outlets to advertise
for the sponsors prompted local
newsweekly The Stranger to refer to
selected events with their
sponsor-attached names redacted.
This is despite the fact that The
Stranger is also a Bumbershoot
sponsor.
As the
region's largest single showcase for
regional talent, Bumbershoot became
a cultural tastemaker. The festival
which has become Seattle's
longest-lived music and arts
festival paved the way for other
Seattle-area outdoor events,
festivals, and happenings. Many of
these, such as the Northwest
Folklife Festival that premiered at
Seattle Center on Memorial Day
weekend nine months after the first
Bumbershoot, have become established
traditions in their own right.
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