By Ian Bremner
Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival has always been a good representation of the city itself. As Seattle continues to morph and mix cultures with the influx of people and businesses in the region, there is the constant struggle of balancing the “Old Seattle” with the “New Seattle.” It’s no simple task. Everyone has an opinion and they all want to be heard.
It’s fair to say Bumbershoot has experienced a similar identity crisis over the years. What started a fun local festival focusing on Northwest arts has had to keep up with the big guns of Lollapalooza and FYF and every other new festival popping up in cities competing for artist talent and ticket sales.
With a historically large age-range of attendees, inevitably there are going to be people who comment, “worst lineup ever” and “fuck yeah! this lineup rules.” The hard part is finding common ground and Bumbershoot nailed it this year. Swells of hip young kids, fashionable hipsters, adults with kids, and “Old Seattle-ites” congregated on the famous grounds of the Seattle Center, with multiple stages all under the watchful eye of the Space Needle. The headliners were J.Cole, SZA, and Fleet Foxes but there were equal parts hip emerging acts and classic novelty acts for all generations like Lil’ Wayne, Ludacris and Blondie.
We were lucky to have Seattle based photographer, Eric Tra on hand to capture some of the favorites.
All Photos by Eric Tra (IG: @erictra)
Day 1: Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Moses Sumney, Rhye, Sloucher
Day 2: T-Pain, Chromeo, Cherry Glazerr
Day 3: Black Pistol Fire, Fleet Foxes, Kelela
OLD ROOKIE 