seven more things I liked about bumbershoot
Before this year’s Bumbershoot fades completely into the ether, a few more things I really liked about it:
1. the crowds, Sure, is one of the things that we, as Seattleites, are obligated to grumble about on an annual basis. But I think that this complaint misses the point. How disappointing would it be to show up at the city’s biggest, most eclectic, and culturally important festival only to find Seattle Center sparsely attended? A big part of the event is that so many people are there, milling around, seeing each other, and experiencing new things. Otherwise, what’s the point? I don’t need to spend every day with Fergie fans, kids being pimped out for busker duty, giggling teenage girls, singing French guys, the man telling us all that we’re bound for the flames of eternal damnation, hippie dancers, and all of the other characters who file in for the weekend, but rubbing elbows, sharing pathways, spots on the grass, and elephant ear lines for a few days a year is just about the right amount to remind us that there’s more to the city than the people we see every night at our favorite neighborhood bars.
2. the lineup: Like #1, among the unfounded ritual gripes. (I’m not touching the third– ticket prices — except to ask if you’ve looked at pricing for anywhere else). I sort of agree that there were fewer big must-see names on the bill this year, but it’s hard to think of another event with the kind of breadth that Bumbershoot does so well. In addition to being a wide-ranging music festival, it’s also a solid comedy, short film, literary, and art festival. I feel like people who complain about there being nothing to see either aren’t trying very hard or irrationally expect that they should want to see everything happening at every time slot. Related to #1, I like how you can draw a line through the schedule at any time point — for instance, 10 pm Saturday — and find Panic! at the Disco, Gogol Bordello, Rodrigo y Gabriela, DeVotchKa, and Grand Archives competing for your your attention. Sure, you might only be interested in one or two of these, but it’s really cool to know that they’re all there, bringing slightly (or vastly) different people to the grounds. And with all of those people from #1 being occasionally aimless means that a lot of local bands might just pick up a few new fans who might not otherwise take a gamble on a weeknight opener at a local nightclub.
3. Art: Mostly tucked out of the way in the Northwest rooms, this is probably the most overlooked part of the festival. But year after year, it is always worth venturing up to check out the exhibits. This year, I loved Instant Coffee’s activation of a room by filling it with nooks of various sizes. People stopped, had conversations at tables in little freestanding rooms, rolled around on cushions, and, presumably, drank coffee. In stark contrast to the cozy and homey setting next door, PDL’s portable confession booths were downright clinical on the outside, complete with a whimsical instructional video playing to a rows of seats in a quiet waiting room. I didn’t get a chance to see the insides and spill my guts in the name of art. Did any of you? Further along, BLVD’s presentation of large-scale street art was similarly transformational. As Samantha already mentioned, seeing these pieces with a little more breathing room was fantastic.
4. Flatstock: I didn’t think that it was possible for me to love this semi-annual poster exhibition any more than I already did until I found the poster from the Carissa’s Weird CD release show at the Graceland for You Should Be At Home Here Now and achieved new levels of poster bliss.
5. the KEXP lounge: Maybe a bit of a snobby item for this list since it wasn’t exactly open to the public — only certain passholders, BumberFans, and people recruited from food alley for unfilled shows — but I hope that KEXP keeps up the tradition of these little semi-secret shows next year. I only caught a few of these more intimate performances, yet they were definitely big highlights. As wonderful as Andrew Bird’s Sunday performance at the Mural Amphitheater was with a full band and seemingly on-the-spot teardowns and reconstructions of familiar melodies, getting to see him up close performing solo renditions of old, new, and cover songs was a rare treat.
6. Something I didn’t see: After the Frames played their outstanding set, Glen Hansard came back for an encore and brought a volunteer from the crowd onto the stage to sing “Falling Slowly”, the duet from Once. Then he led the whole audience in a singalong. I’m a little goosebumpish just thinking about it. Damn the schedule for making me choose between staying for the whole show and getting to see Miranda July. (update via reverb [#]: someone youtubed the it [#])
7. Miranda July: I’m not surprised that a lot of people chose to end their Bumbershoot in a thoroughly packed Memorial Stadium with the Wu Tang Clan, but I’m awfully glad that I closed out my festival in the Bagley-Wright with Miranda July. Overcoming jet lag after flying in from Ireland, she guided us through some of her favorite Learning to Love You More report (occasionally in screenshots of screenshots), pausing along the way to share some background on the assignments that she and Harrell Fletcher created as part of a desire to see beautiful things on the internet. Along the way, striking impromptu performance art was made from brave volunteers and photocopied scripts: narration of an exhibition of the art in a parent’s house [#] and readings of impossible fanatsy phone calls [#] were so good that even Miranda July said that they were the sort of thing that makes people think there are plants in the audience.
The second half of the presentation had nothing to do with the first; so we all pretended that we’d just arrived for a new show taking place a year later, though we were unaged (and all still alive!) and in the same clothes and seats. Before the show, three items had been donated and the auction of these the small objects consumed the rest of the evening. Before the bidding began, the original owners — an Xbox game programmer (donation, Pacific Science Center coin purse), a high school senior (scissors, not suitable for cutting thread), and a educator/mediator (homeopathic remedy, slightly used) — were first interviewed onstage. The discussions included talk of a dead father, a forced career choice, and tendonitis. When all was said and done, the items & their commemorative signed envelopes fetched a total $160 in donations ($30, $70, & $60, respectively) for a local charity.It wasn’t until we all closed our eyes, raised our hands if that amount of money could make a difference in our lives, and waited for the “grant” to be awarded to an anonymous recipient that I realized how truly exhilarating and emotionally exhausting the hour had been.
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Obviously, I saw a lot of other good acts, readings, shows, kittens, Eddie Argos crowd-diving dance parties, and beer gardens that I didn’t really have time to mention and missed pages of performances that just didn’t fit into my schedule. What did you see and love? And what is the difference between a funnel cake and an elephant ear? I have my suspicions, but still haven’t gotten around to investigating in a fried dough face off. Maybe next year…
Related posts:
An elephant ear is flat, a funnel cake is poured through a funnel.
As for the crowds–admittedly I’m biased in my view of crowds because I’m claustrophobic; I’m not exactly at my mental best when I’m focusing on breathing exercises to try and keep from psychotic break, but more than sheer number of people crowded into a small space I am annoyed by the stupidity of the crowd. One person being a dope is mildly irritating, dozens to hundreds of people being dopes is crazy-making.
As for the ticket prices, I don’t bitch too much about them either. Frankly, I prefer a “smaller” festival where the focus is on local/regional artists and the cost of the fest is lower but I am obviously in the minority.
I guess that I like that Bumbershoot has a good mix of local and national acts. The EMP, in particular, had almost entirely Seattle-based acts and most of the other stages featured bands from the area. For a while, it seemed like the neighborhood block parties were even more focused on Seattle bands, but as the Capitol Hill Block Party keeps getting bigger, so does the scope of their programming.
I can see how the crowds could be troubling, especially with claustrophbia. I think that I’ve just learned to live with them to the point that I hardly notice anymore or at least don’t let myself get frustrated by it.
I’m so, so sad that I missed the Frames’ Bumbershoot miracle.
1. They’re not milling, Josh, they’re so tightly packed in parts that by midday you can’t even push yourself through some corridors. These are not just crowds… they’re impassably packed crowds, so poo-pooing critics as crowd haters is rather dense. The impassable crowds and long lines (with an indeterminate cutoff point, where even if you’re in line for an hour plus, you get blocked out) continue to be a deterrant to future attendance, even if you looks past the ticket price.
2. Even if you’re aimlessly looking for a show to see… given the lines to see them, unless you aimlessly decide to see a certain act no less than an hour in advance, you’re probably not getting into the venue to see them.
3 is a fun selling point.
4 can be fun.
If 5 isn’t open to the public, then 5 is irrelevant. Don’t use a VIP event as a selling point.
6. See 2.
7. See 2.
Bumbershoot has its merits but IMO it has far more flaws that make it not worth the hype, the time and the price. I’m not into music, comedy or art enough to think that fighting through crowds, sitting in lines for over an hour for each event, having to carefully map out an entire day just to see half of what I’d want to see, and overpaying for food and drink in the interim if I want it and don’t think to sneak in something… is worth it.
I suppose Bumbershoot is partially a state of mind.
Sure, if you stick to the main food court type thoroughfares, the going is slow, but go just a little bit off the beaten path and it’s entirely manageable. On Monday I was admittedly running around like a crazy person, but I managed to see anywhere from a little bit to a whole lot of 15 acts, often crossing from one side to the other.
As for getting shut out, only two of the music stages were inside and the outdoor ones had great programming (including #6) that was easy to drop in on (I think that some of this logic went into our recommendations posts). The times that I checked out the EMP, the lines didn’t seem bad. I don’t know about Exhibition Hall. In previous years, that was a frustrating venue, simply because they didn’t clear it between acts and staff had trouble estimating how many people could get inside.
I do agree that the Comedy stages and Film presentations were not big enough to satisfy the intense demand. It really might be something for the programmers to consider next time since it seems to be a perennial problem. I don’t know if this is unavoidable given that some comedy might often be better suited to a small, well-attended house.
As for the KEXP lounge (and this post in general), I’m not trying to “sell” Bumbershoot. Still, I think it’s legitimate for the festival to sell special passes for people that want special privileges and this is a great perk of buying one of those passes. Either way, I think that the lounge was a great asset. Even if I hadn’t been able to get into any of the shows, I admire them for doing them and putting the shows on the radio and the internet for anyone to hear.
I do agree with your last point. If you hate crowds, aren’t into the stuff that the festival offers, and not willing to either map out a reasonable plan to see the things that you desperately want to see or stay open to a loose agenda with spontaneity, then maybe it isn’t worth it.