Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at the same time—and came away with whiplash, we’re going to make it very simple for you.

Here’s an emergency itinerary if you don’t have one: 20 things—10 for Saturday, 10 for Sunday—that, regardless of your interests or curiosity, you’ll be glad you saw. Feel free to fill in the gaps with some of the festival’s all-day events (including a “live” mermaid and the always delightful Cat Circus, wherein cats up for adoption do not perform any circus tricks at all).

Saturday

1. Skate Like a Girl

(1-2 p.m.) GRAVITY PARK 

The arts districts kick off just before any of the musicians take the stage. Lots of good stuff to catch right out of the gate (including a three-hour showcase by magician Taylor Kyle), but we’d suggest starting off at Gravity Park with this showcase by nonprofit organization Skate Like a Girl, featuring high-octane tricks by youths of all identities.

2. Travis Thompson

(2:20-2:50 p.m.) FISHER STAGE 

From the Arts Districts, head to Fisher Stage for Travis Thompson’s set. Thompson is one of the only hip-hop artists playing Bumbershoot, and one of just two local rappers on the bill, alongside Oblé Reed. That alone makes his set worth your time, but he’s also a unique delight on stage, laying down dense flows on tracks anchored by compelling narratives.

3. Wrestling

(2-4 p.m.) BUMBERMANIA

Bumbermania, one of the defining attractions of Bumbershoot V2, is holding a pair of two-hour showcases per day—one in the early afternoon and one in the evening. This gives you plenty of opportunities to catch the hilarity and the kinetic action throughout the weekend, but we recommend catching it early. You won’t regret it!

4. Alter Ego: “Unframed”

(4-4:30 p.m.) FASHION RUNWAY

As with previous Bumbershoots, you’ll find the festival’s Fashion District rife with vendors hawking their wares, many of them handmade or composed of vintage acquisitions. You’ll also find a handful of runway shows peppered throughout the day, including this one put on by designer Ayanna Ali, whose art blends “surreal, dark, and emotionally charged imagery with bold, graphic composition.”

5. Peaches

(5-5:45 p.m.) MURAL STAGE

From there, it’s only a short walk to Mural Stage to catch legendary electroclash artist Peaches. If you’re not already in the know, electroclash is having a huge resurgence thanks to Y2K nostalgia and the success of acts like The Dare and albums like Charli XCX’s BRAT. As one of the genre’s progenitors, Peaches has ridden the line between outré and accessible like no one else in the field. Prepare to dance at this one.

6. Bikini Kill

(6:15-7:15 p.m.) MURAL STAGE

By now the Arts Districts will be buzzing with activity—any of its events would be worth the trip over—but if you’re willing to hang tight by the Mural Stage after Peaches’ set, you’ll be front and center for one of Olympia’s greatest cultural exports: riot-grrl pioneers Bikini Kill, whose fiery riffs and uncompromising feminist salvos have inspired decades of punks since the early 1990s. Since their reunion in 2019, shows have been rare, so catch them while they’re here.

7. 48 Hour Film Festival Showcase

(6:25-7:30 p.m.) VIDEORAMA

We all know films take heaps of time, effort, and money to make. So how about just two days? That’s the premise of the 48 Hour Film Project, a national organization that tasks its participants with writing, filming, editing, and delivering a whole short film under VERY tight constraints. You’ll get to watch all the winners at the VIDEORAMA showcase—catch at least a few if you’re able to.

8. Sera Cahoone

(7:55-8:40 p.m.) UPPER COURTYARD

By now, the big musical acts will have started to kick off. Molchat Doma is always a good time, but if you’re willing to stick around the Arts Districts, we recommend catching local artist Sera Cahoone. She’s been in the scene for decades, first as the drummer of notable slowcore act Carissa’s Wierd and later as a Sub Pop-signed folk singer in the 2000s. Come catch her playing cuts from her brand-new album—her first in 9 years!

9. Blood Orange

(8:15-9:30 p.m.) FISHER STAGE

Following Sera, London producer and songwriter Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange) will already be in the middle of his set, likely filled with tracks from his newest album Essex Honey. By now Hynes has woven himself inextricably into the fabric of 21st century pop and R&B, first as an indie artist and later by collaborating on songs with Beyoncé, FKA Twigs, Mariah Carey, and tons of others. His Blood Orange set is perfectly timed with the last fading rays of Saturday sun.

10. Turnstile

(10:15-11:30 p.m.) FISHER STAGE

The first headliner of the festival kicks off at night, and it promises to keep everyone in a five-mile radius from hitting the hay. Baltimore rockers Turnstile used to be a hardcore punk group until their 2021 breakthrough Glow On broadened their approach to the genre and subsequently made them Grammy nominees. The band is incredibly hot right now, with a remix version of their 2025 album Never Enough (featuring artists from Hayley Williams to Elton John) released in August 2026. One piece of advice? Bring earplugs.

Sunday

1. Seattle Black Film Festival Presents: Becoming

(12:45-1:50 p.m.) VIDEORAMA

Bumbershoot’s Sunday programming starts early, and if you’re getting there at the jump, we recommend heading to Videorama to catch excerpts from the Seattle Black Film Festival. Formerly the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival (regularly hosted at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in the Central District), this year’s lineup boasts a plethora of stellar films, from Laura Dyan Kezman’s award-winning documentary Cycle to LIVt’s wonderful music video for “Waste Time.”

2. Takuya Nakamura

(2-2:30 p.m.) MURAL STAGE

Early on the music docket is Brooklyn-via-Tokyo musician Takuya Nakamura, who has spent the last three decades both as a jazz trumpeter in his hometown of Tokyo and later as a Brooklyn-based electronic artist and early proponent of fast-paced “jungle.” Recently Nakamura has gone viral for his DJ sets, which combine eclectic Eastern cuts with spontaneous trumpet interludes. The man is coolness incarnate, and his set is not to be missed. 

3. K. Overdraft

(2:55-3:15 p.m.) JUXT STAGE

Up on the rooftop overlooking Fisher Stage, just a short walk away from the Mural, be sure to catch OVERDRAFT, a special piece by Hannah Simmons and Kit Wyatt (who often perform under the name ATM). The pair put together transfixing performances that balance the sensual with the grotesque, playing all around Seattle’s queer nightlife scene. While the middle of the afternoon might not be the ideal time for their kind of art, perhaps that’s exactly what will make this particular performance special.

4. Midpak

(3:30-4 p.m.) UPPER COURTYARD

It’s time to get funked up! Traipse back to the Upper Courtyard to catch Seattle band Midpak, a collective of groove chasers that does 1970s-era pastiche so well you can almost feel the shag carpet under your feet as they play.

5. Bellingham Buddies Puppet Show

(4-4:30 p.m.) GEODESIC DOMES

After your trip to the cosmos, you’ll be taking a trip to the puppet house: specifically the Upfront Theater, a nonprofit started by Whose Line Is It Anyway? mainstay Ryan Stiles that brings the joy of learning improv throughout Whatcom County. Be warned:  the puppet show they’ll be providing, Bellingham Buddies, is adult-oriented (not for kids!) but it’s absolutely worth seeing! It’s running every hour between 2 and 9:30 p.m. both days, but we recommend taking the time here to catch it.

6. Noname

(5-5:45 p.m.) MURAL STAGE

Back in 2016, Chicago rapper Noname (hyped for her appearance on Chance the Rapper’s now-classic Acid Rap) dropped her lush debut album Telefone and immediately made a name for herself as a force to be reckoned with. Ten years later, after more music, a book club, and Twitter drama, she’s making a stop at the Mural Amphitheatre to celebrate the album’s anniversary. A 10th anniversary only comes once, so don’t miss this if you can.

7. Sudan Archives

(6:15-7 p.m.) MURAL STAGE

The last time Sudan Archives played at Seattle Center, it was on the Fisher Pavilion stage at Day In Day Out four years ago. Since then, the Cincinnati-born violinist has taken her art to new heights, putting out two critically acclaimed albums (2022’s Natural Brown Prom Queen and 2025’s The BPM) and touring the world twice over. If you haven’t caught her, now’s your chance.

8. 35th North: Ramp Riot!

(7-8 p.m.) GRAVITY PARK

It’s all music from here on out, so take one more opportunity to check out the Arts Districts and see if you missed anything. Visit the mermaid if you haven’t already; go check out those cats. One thing we recommend is what’s sure to be a showstopper at Gravity Park: a showcase featuring some of the best skaters in the area.

9. Orville Peck

(8:15-9:30 p.m.) FISHER STAGE

Spend your Sunday sunset in the company of Orville Peck, queer South African punk turned masked cowboy. Peck and his music are beloved in Seattle; his first album, the indie-inflected Pony, was a Sub Pop release. Since then, he’s leaned much farther into straight-ahead country with a gay-as-hell twist. Peck promises to be one of the showstoppers of the whole festival.

10. Death Cab for Cutie

(10:15-11:30 p.m.) FISHER STAGE

One of the other showstoppers, of course, is hometown hero Death Cab for Cutie. Led by Ben Gibbard, the band is more than a legacy indie act; it has spent much of the last decade making the case that it is the legacy indie act. It’s quite likely you’ve already attended one of their several sold-out concerts since then, but there’s never a bad opportunity to catch them, especially following the release of their eleventh album, I Built You a Tower.