Seattle’s Music Festival Season Begins with These Three Events
Music festival season officially returns with this tuneful trifecta
By Gavin Borchert May 2, 2018
This article originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the May 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.
Folklife (5/25–5/28)
Launched: 1972
Focus: folk, world music, DIY
Typical festival experience: Drum circles, impromptu mandolin jams, shrieking kids running through the International Fountain
Who goes: The Woodstock generation and their grandkids, aficionados of the hammered dulcimer, people who really don’t see why everyone thinks Portlandia is so funny
Big names: Naomi Wachira, Kung Foo Grip, Whitney Monge, Tomo Nakayama, Clinton Fearon, Baby Gramps
Likely political ambassador: Kshama Sawant.
Times vary. Free (suggested daily donation $10/person). Seattle Center, nwfolklife.org
The full 2018 Northwest Folklife Festival schedule is here. Get ready to celebrate the music, arts, food & crafts representing over 100 cultural communities in the Pacific Northwest. This is Folklife! https://t.co/3KYuQpodgH pic.twitter.com/d1weP1Mvah
— Northwest Folklife (@NWFolklife) May 1, 2018
Sasquatch! (5/25–5/27)
Launched 2002
Focus: Alt-rock
Typical festival experience: Tent camping, extortionately priced bottled water, getting the side-eye from Ellensburgers on the drive home
Who goes: Upwardly mobile, midriff-baring millennials
Big name: David Byrne
Likely political ambassador: Bernie Sanders.
Times and prices vary. The Gorge Amphitheatre, George, 754 Silica Road NW; sasquatchfestival.com
Upstream (6/1–6/3)
Launched 2017
Focus: Local music, with a few big name headliners
Typical festival experience: Taking light rail home afterward and running into someone you know
Who goes: Aspiring local artists, bands and supporters of Seattle’s dynamic music scene
Big name: Valerie June
Likely political ambassador: Krist Novoselic. (His new band, Giants in the Trees, plays the fest, too.)
Times and prices vary. Pioneer Square, Occidental Square, Occidental Avenue S and S Main Street, upstreammusicfest.com
Follow Us
Studio Sessions: Jo Cosme
The Seattle-based multimedia artist and 2026 Neddy Award winner challenges the postcard version of Puerto Rico and centers the persistence of its people.
Jo Cosme knows how seductive a postcard can be. The Seattle-based Boricua (Puerto Rican) multimedia artist works across photography, installation, video, sound, and interactive elements to examine and pull apart how Puerto Rico is seen, sold, and misunderstood from the outside. Trained in photojournalism, with a BFA in photography from Puerto Rico School of Fine…
Seattle’s Drag Brunch Has History
The city’s Sunday shows started long before the mimosas got bottomless.
There was a time not too long ago, when drag performances—now a mainstay of Seattle’s queer scene—were kept under wraps. And when brunches, complete with singing and dancing queens dressed in dazzling drag as you sipped mimosas, weren’t a Sunday staple. During the 1940s and ‘50s, an era largely shaped by restrictive laws and bias…
Studio Sessions: Sangram Majumdar
Working at the confluence of history, culture, and various painting traditions, UW associate professor Sangram Majumdar is one of this year’s Neddy Artist Award winners.
Discover the art of UW professor Sangram Majumdar, a 2026 Neddy Artist Award winner. Learn about his inspiration and upcoming Seattle exhibition at Cornish.
Rearview Mirror: A Georgian Dinner, Sidewalk Sips, and One-of-a-Kind Clothing
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
A new life for old clothes To celebrate one year in its current studio, the FXRY—a clothing repair service available via in-person appointments, home pickup, or mail-in drop off—is dropping its first collection. A small batch of reworked pieces, Second Mark will feature 13 vintage barn jackets, cropped, chain-stitched, and renewed into a completely unique, one-of-one…