Bumbershoot facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Bumbershoot
RA Scion at Bumbershoot 2016, filmed by Aaron RF Anderson.
Genre	variety
Dates	Labor Day weekend
Location(s)	Seattle, Washington
Years active	1971–2019, 2021–
Founded by	City of Seattle

Bumbershoot is a big yearly festival of music and arts held in Seattle, Washington. It's one of the largest festivals of its kind in North America! The festival happens every Labor Day weekend, which is the first weekend of September. It takes place at the Seattle Center, a large area built for the 1962 World's Fair. The Seattle Center has both indoor theaters and outdoor stages for all the fun.

The festival gets its name from the word bumbershoot, which is an old, fun way to say umbrella. It's like a mix of the words umbrella and parachute.

Bumbershoot is put on by One Reel, a non-profit group in Seattle. They have been organizing the festival since 1980. From 2015 to 2019, another company called AEG Presents also helped produce the festival.

The History of Bumbershoot

How Bumbershoot Started

Bumbershoot began in 1971 as a city-funded arts and music festival. It was first called "Mayor's Arts Festival" or "Festival '71". The very first event was held from August 13-15, 1971, at the Seattle Center. About 125,000 people came to this first festival!

At the time, many people in Seattle were feeling down because of problems with the Boeing company. The festival was created to help cheer everyone up. It was the biggest event at the Seattle Center since the 1962 World's Fair.

The early festivals had many cool and unusual things. There were light shows with lasers, which were very new back then. You could also see computer graphics, huge inflatable sculptures, and even people doing body painting! Other events included dance, theater, folk music, and art cars. There was even a "Miss Hot Pants Contest" and amateur motorcycle races.

In 1972, the festival, then called "Festival '72", had even more visitors. In 1973, it officially became "Bumbershoot" and lasted five days, attracting 200,000 people. Famous musicians like Cal Tjader and Joe Venuti performed. By 1974, the festival grew to 10 days and had 325,000 visitors! A fun event from this time was the Bumbernationals Artists' Soapbox Derby, where people raced creative, homemade cars.

Changes in the Late 1970s

Later in the 1970s, Bumbershoot started getting less money from the city. To keep going, the festival tried to rely on donations and selling things like posters and T-shirts. But sometimes bad weather kept people away, which made things harder.

Because of these challenges, the festival became smaller. In 1976, it was cut to two weekends and mostly featured local artists. In 1977, it was even shorter, only happening on Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, it rained on Labor Day weekend in both 1977 and 1978.

One Reel Takes Over

In 1980, the city asked a non-profit group called One Reel to organize Bumbershoot. One Reel has been in charge ever since! One Reel started as a traveling show called "The One Reel Vaudeville Show" in 1972.

When One Reel took over, big changes happened. The festival started bringing in famous national and international performers again. Some of the acts that year included Emmylou Harris, Chuck Berry, and Etta James. However, there was now a small admission fee. It started at $2.50 a day, though there was a "Free Friday" for many years.

The new plan for Bumbershoot was to have amazing world-class artists while still featuring many talented artists from the Pacific Northwest. Lots of people came to enjoy the music, art, food, and crafts. Artists like The Eurythmics, James Brown, and Tina Turner performed. The festival also featured unique art, like a giant flying pencil and robotic art.

Even though Bumbershoot was slow to include hip hop music at first, in the mid-1990s, it hosted some of the first big hip hop shows in Seattle. This tradition continues today. After the grunge rock music scene, new Seattle bands like Sleater Kinney, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab for Cutie played at Bumbershoot. The festival also added new art forms like poetry slams and break dancing, along with older arts like circus acts and street theater.

Bumbershoot became very important for showing off local talent in the region. It helped other outdoor events and festivals in Seattle get started, like the Northwest Folklife Festival.

AEG Presents Steps In

After some difficult years, a company called AEG Live (now AEG Presents) became the main organizer of Bumbershoot in 2015. One Reel still helped with some of the programming. AEG had helped before, from 2007 to 2009.

When AEG took over in 2015, they had more control because One Reel was having financial difficulties. This meant AEG made most of the big decisions. Some local people worried that AEG's involvement might change the festival's focus. They were concerned that local artists might be replaced by bigger, more famous acts.

However, the local team at AEG believed in Bumbershoot and Seattle. They wanted to save the festival. One Reel's founder, Norm Langill, trusted the AEG team to manage Bumbershoot.

AEG Steps Down

In November 2019, AEG announced that they would no longer produce Bumbershoot. AEG said it was a "heartbreaking" decision because they truly wanted to help the festival. This decision came after several years of challenges.

Seattle owns Bumbershoot, which means there are special rules about things like union workers, city overtime pay, and police fees. Also, parts of the Seattle Center have been under construction, which limited the space available for the festival. Experts believed that AEG likely lost money each year they promoted Bumbershoot. Unlike some other cities that give government money to festivals, Bumbershoot didn't have that kind of support.

The Future of Bumbershoot

In late 2019, it was confirmed that AEG Live would not continue producing Bumbershoot in 2020. This break gave the festival time to rethink its plans.

Seattle has a rich music history. It's the birthplace of famous bands like Nirvana (band), Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, and was the center of the Grunge music scene in the 1990s. Many other music heroes like Jimi Hendrix and Macklemore are also from Seattle. Bumbershoot's challenges are not unique, as several other music festivals in the Pacific Northwest have been canceled recently.

One Reel believes that Bumbershoot will return to entertain Seattle for many years to come. They see this break as a chance to reflect on the past and "evolve into something new."

One Reel and the Seattle Center have agreed to work together to bring Bumbershoot back. They want to make it sustainable for the future and return it to its roots. Many people, including artists and the Seattle community, believe Bumbershoot is very important to the city. Chris Cornell, the lead singer of Soundgarden, once said that playing Bumbershoot was a "career highlight" for him.

The 2020 festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival's 50th anniversary was moved to 2021.