Bumbershoot Festival takes over Labor Day Weekend in Seattle, WA

Bumbershoot

August 30- September 1, 2014

Seattle, WA

On August 30- September 1, 2014, big name bands and artists along with many local bands made their way to Seattle Center to perform at Seattle’s longest-lived music and arts festival Bumbershoot. Bumbershoot has been a music and arts festival that started in 1971 and runs annually on labor day weekend.

Despite the rain on Saturday, many people showed up to see bands and artists such as Panic! At The Disco, Youngblood Hawke, Danny Brown, Sam Lachow, Mac Demarco, G-Eazy, Elvis Costello, The Imposters, Walk The Moon, Wu Tang Clan and many others. Sam Lachow, G-Eazy, and Danny Brown were performers I was lucky enough to experience on the Fisher Green Stage. Each of the rappers had a packed crowd that sang along and didn’t let the rain ruin their day. I also caught some bands on the Fountain Lawn Stage like Mac Demarco and Walk The Moon which had lighter crowds and seemed more calm, but once the bands walked on everyone would start singing and dancing along to the music. The rest of the bands I saw on Saturday played on the Mainstage which was in memorial stadium, these bands were Panic! At The Disco and Elvis Costello and The Imposters.
Panic! At The Disco put on an awesome set and actually surprised me a quite a few times through-out the set. When they did a cover of Queen’s song Bohemian Rhapsody and also when Brendon Urie started to scream a song they have been doing on this tour called Positive Hardcore, I was amazed! The last person I saw perform on Mainstage was Elvis Costello and The Imposters. I have never seen so many older people at a concert before, the floor was filled with people 30+ but their age definitely didn’t stop them from having fun and enjoying the show. There were many people dancing with their children and just having a fun time and making memories with their families.
The weather was a lot nicer on Sunday; it was still cloudy but there was hardly any rain which made quite a few bands happy. Some of the bands and artists were Schoolboy Q, Red Fang, IAMSU! and The Head and The Heart.
Schoolboy Q was the first to perform on Mainstage and had been putting on a great show but then he surprised the entire crowd with a little known rapper from Seattle named Macklemore and the crowd went wild! Schoolboy Q and Macklemore performed White Walls and the crowd screamed and sang every word.
IAMSU!, is a rapper from California and man did this guy interact with his fans. Multiple times he would get close enough to the crowd that his fans could touch him, he also kept pointing out people in his shirt and met them after he finished his set. According to IAMSU!’s manager he finds it really important to connect and meet his fans that support his music and thats exactly what he did!
The last band I saw was The Head and The Heart which is a band from Seattle that was playing on Mainstage. One could see how excited and happy the band members were to perform on mainstage of Bumbershoot because they grew up going to Bumbershoot! There were so many people in the crowd supporting the Seattle band singing and dancing along to every song.

The last day of Bumbershoot had the nicest weather and it seemed like there were a lot more people this day. Artists of the day included Capital Cities, J.Cole, Neon Trees, Raz Simone/Sam Lachow, and Foster The People.
Capital Cities was the first band I caught on Mainstage. I was very surprised and pleased that their was a trumpet player in the band- it was very nice hearing that live. This band also interacted a lot with the crowd. The trumpeter, and also both of the frontmen ran down to the crowd and grabbed fans hands and sang with them. I also found it cool that during their last song Safe and Sound that they had almost everyone waving and swinging around a shirt in the air.
The next set was a secret performance with local Seattle rappers Raz Simone and Sam Lachow and about 150 people showed up but it was one of the craziest crowds. I don’t think Raz Simone knew what a stage was because he was always in the crowd or stage diving into the crowd through out the entire set, along with his close friend and rapper Sam Lachow who had played on the Fisher Green Stage on the first day of Bumbershoot.
Neon Trees was very energetic throughout the entire show, the lead singer, Tyler Glen would slide on his knees and dance which made for a great show. Foster The People were headlining the entire festival. Getting there an hour early was too late as there was already 500+ people waiting to see them. By the time they started there had to be 5000+ people on the floor watching them and another 2000 in the stands. When the band came on everyone went crazy! One of my favorite parts of the show were the light up balloons because it made the show look really cool! The band was very energetic for every song but also took time to be very serious and talk about their work helping out fans who aren’t able to be at shows because they are hospitalized. I thought this was very cool.
If you live in Seattle or will be in Seattle for Labor Day Weekend someday you should try to go to at least one day of Bumbershoot if not all three days! I also recommend checking out all the bands I saw if they come to your town because I did not see any bad performances!