One Reel and Seattle Center are pleased to announce a new collaborative effort to sustain Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival long into the future. Moving outside their long-established arrangements, next steps for the two will be formation of a Bumbershoot Exploratory Committee to inform and advise the Seattle Center Director about Bumbershoot’s future.
The exploratory process comes after a one-year hiatus for Bumbershoot in 2020, which will continue in 2021 because of event restrictions associated with COVID-19. The Committee will look back at successful festival elements over the years with an eye to maintaining the Festival’s essential character of artistic and cultural diversity and excellence and the tradition of strong community festival involvement.
The goal will be to continue the Festival’s heritage as an affordable, multi-disciplinary arts event celebrating regional, national and international arts and entertainment.
More info: Bumbershoot (seattlecenter.com)
Bumbershoot Music & Art Festival takes place every Labor Day weekend in the heart of the city on the 74-acre Seattle Center campus. Discount advance tickets and multi-day passes go on sale well in advance. The price for tickets goes up the closer we get to the festival dates. So the sooner you purchase your pass, the more you will save.
Each year, thousands of people from across the country flock to Seattle Center to attend this acclaimed festival, which has become one of the biggest and most-loved contemporary festivals in North America, yet maintains its Northwest spirit and innovative roots.
Love our cheap ideas? Get our FREE email newsletters.
Choose from daily, weekly, and monthly lists:
About Bumbershoot
The name Bumbershoot (meaning “an umbrella”) was chosen both as a nod to the Emerald city’s most famous weather pattern (rain!), as well as a symbol of the overarching mission of this festival: to be an umbrella for all of the arts.
From the beginning, Bumbershoot was a multi-disciplinary arts festival showcasing the best of comedy, dance, film, literary arts, music, performing arts, theatre, and visual arts.
The Bumbershoot Festival is marked by a special blend of world and nationally renowned talent, local artistry, and spectacle. The programming at Bumbershoot strives to be a contemporary microcosm of what is current across all disciplines and genres within those art forms, giving our audience opportunities few other festivals around the world offer.
Now approaching half a century since it’s inception in 1971, Bumbershoot is one of Seattle’s largest cultural touchstones. Spanning the Seattle Center grounds, a campus originally created for the 1962 “Century 21” World’s Fair, Bumbershoot has continued the legacy of legacy of Century 21, celebrating innovation and the search for what’s next.
The video below, Airstream Leave it Beautiful- Bumbershoot 2016 from The Public Works on Vimeo will give you a sense of Bumbershoot.
Bumbershoot 2021
When: Posptoned until 2022.
Tickets: Single day, general admission tickets for Bumbershoot start around $99 and increase the closer we get to Labor Day Weekend.
Be the first to know about ticket discounts, promotions, and festival information by visiting their website: https://onereel.org/bumbershoot.
Discount Bumbershoot tickets
There are several ways to save on Bumbershoot tickets.
Buy tickets in advance, beginning in spring. Prices go up in mid-summer, so the earlier you buy, the cheaper your ticket will be.
(These are 2019 prices. 2022 prices are expected to be announced in spring 2022.)
- Single day General Admission tickets are $99, advance purchase.
- 2-day and 3-day GA tickets are $$165 and $220, advance purchase.
- VIP and Emerald passes are $175-$795, advance purchase.
Sign up to volunteer. Sign up to volunteer on the Bumbershoot website (usually before August). Volunteers can experience Bumbershoot behind the scenes, earn an exclusive volunteer t-shirt and can also earn festival passes.
Calendar of free or cheap live music performances
The following events include affordable music performances in all genres on our calendar in the next 60 days.
(If nothing is listed below, there are no free or low cost music events on our calendar. Theoretically, this should never happen. We update music events on a rolling basis all year long. We try to have at least 10-20 free or low cost music events on the calendar every month.)
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Monday, August 8, 2022
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Friday, August 12, 2022
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Monday, August 15, 2022
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Friday, August 19, 2022
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Monday, August 22, 2022
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Friday, August 26, 2022
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Monday, August 29, 2022
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Thursday, September 1, 2022
Friday, September 2, 2022
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Monday, September 5, 2022
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Friday, September 9, 2022
Saturday, September 10, 2022
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Monday, September 12, 2022
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Friday, September 16, 2022
Saturday, September 17, 2022
Sunday, September 18, 2022
Monday, September 19, 2022
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Thursday, September 22, 2022
Friday, September 23, 2022
Saturday, September 24, 2022
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Monday, September 26, 2022
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Friday, September 30, 2022
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Monday, October 3, 2022
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
But wait, there’s more!
- Here’s where to find free events throughout the year at Seattle Center.
- And our big lists of live music venues (all genres) and free live music events in the Puget Sound region.
- Plus, music festivals in Washington State.
- For more fun anytime, here’s a list of 101+ always free things to do for fun.
- Find free and cheap things to do every day on the Greater Seattle on the Cheap event calendar.
- Visit the Greater Seattle on the Cheap home page and choose from a menu of free and cheap activities in the Puget Sound region.
Love our cheap ideas? Get our FREE email newsletters. Choose from daily, weekly, and monthly lists. Click here to subscribe.
Bumbershoot 1973 photo from Seattle Municipal Archives (CC2)
