Bumbershoot 2019 ☂
Bumbershoot is a classic close to a Seattle summer over Labor Day weekend. It is a multi-day music and arts festival hosted at Seattle Center that has been around since 1971. The festival has definitely gone through some changes over the years but still always gets great acts to enjoy over a long weekend.
I had been to Bumbershoot once before in 2014 and was able to get a festival long pass for the amount of a one-day ticket this year just to give you one point of reference of how the festival has changed over the years. I had a great time a Bumbershoot 2014 and there were a lot of great acts that I was excited about but this year I had a different approach to the festival because I was going because of a single act - Carly Rae Jepsen (CRJ).CRJ performed on Saturday so I got my one-day ticket just to see her. Though Carly was my priority for why I was attending Bumbershoot this year I was still curious about the day's schedule and who else was performing that day. One of the first things that took me aback about the schedule was how late into the day it started in comparison to my other Bumbershoot experience. This year the gates didn't open until 2pm with shows starting around 3pm. Back in 2014, the gates opened at 9 or 10am and had many acts completed before noon and the schedule was going as late into the night as it currently does (Also looking back I don't know how I survived the three full days of 10am-midnight at this festival). So not only was the length of the day of the festival shorter, but the overall density of the schedule was less in comparison to a few years back. Another thing I noted about the scheduling for this year's festival was that all of the comedic acts were concentrated within a three hour time window, which coincided with the time CRJ was performing. That was a disappointment to me since the other time I went to Bumbershoot the comedy performances was one of my favorite parts of the festival and the festival usually gets such great comedic talent of names you know and others that are on the rise. Despite being less than excited about the scheduling for the Saturday of Bumbershoot I was more than excited to see CRJ.
When it was finally time for me to see Carly Rae Jepsen, her performance did not disappoint. It was bubbly, fun, and upbeat which is everything that you want it to be coming from her. Her set list was majority of songs from her latest album, Dedicated, with a good handful of songs from the Emotion album and of course she couldn't leave out "Call Me Maybe" from the Kiss album. Below is the set list that she had for the performance:
Run Away With Me
E-MO-TION
No Drug Like Me
Julien
Call Me Maybe
Now That I Found You
Want You In My Room
Too Much
I Really Like You
Everything He Needs
Party for One
Cut to the Feeling
The set list was strong and had such a great variety of songs Carly has put out with extra emphasis on the latest music. However when the show ended I was thinking about how different her set would be when she is on one of her normal tour stop shows and also how that environment would change the experience of seeing her live. You could definitely tell that she was loving the festival crowd and engaging with the audience as much as she could but that it was in a different capacity compared to what the rest she has been doing on her Dedication tour.
Beyond my love of CRJ I wanted to experience a little bit of the general Bumbershoot experience while I was there and reflect on how the festival has changed from the last time I visited.The first thing I noticed was that when I was waiting in line to get through the gates to the festival of how everyone waiting in line was so young. Almost everyone in line looked like they were still in high school. I knew the demographics of this festival were trending younger but I didn't realize how young until I was here. The Seattle Times published a great piece recapping this year's festival and really emphasized the change in festival goer demographics. If you haven't already, give this article a read. This article will give you a lot of perspective on the current state of Bumbershoot.
Aligned with Bumbershoot trending towards a younger audience, the festival is built to be a social media frenzy with the amount of photo opportunities there were all across the grounds. I love a good photo op so I wasn't too bothered by them but there were just so many and lines of people waiting to use each one that it makes you think about how many people are posting photos to their social in front of the same thing on the same day.Finally, since the festival is thriving with such a younger audience now the beer garden is the place to be if you are of age. It is so much more relaxed and chill in that setting that you can really sit back and enjoy the music instead of being rushed by the kiddos that are out to see the artist play their biggest hit before running off to another festival stage to go on and do the same thing. (That's something that really happened. Much of the youngest members of the audience during CRJ left immediately after "Call Me Maybe" was done, leaving behind the true CRJ fans there with lots of room to dance and enjoy all of CRJ's other great music.)
Finally, something that never seems to change whenever you go to a music festival is how you can stumble into some great acts that you didn't realize that you were already familiar with or you sometimes find your new favorite band. That happened as I was getting ready to leave for the night and passed by the Mural Amphitheater stage and stayed and watched the end of the last act of the day at that stage. The act was COIN and you could tell they were having such a blast on stage, especially when they played their hit song "Talk Too Much". When they were performing I knew I was familiar with their music but I couldn't really place it. When they played "Talk Too Much" I finally could place it and it was their closing song of the night which was a great one to end my Bumbershoot 2019 experience with. ☂
I left Bumbershoot 2019 with a big TBD if I'll be coming back again next year. I had a good time this year and finally got to see one of my favorite artists but with the festival experience here trending so much younger I am starting to feel out of place at this classic Seattle event. But really, what it will come down to next year is the lineup. If there are great acts performing that get me super excited, I'll make it out to the festival. And if I go, I'll be sure not to forget my bumbershoot for when I soak up some Seattle sunshine and great music. ☂
If you want to listen to a playlist of the Carly Rae Jepsen set list from Bumbershoot 2019, check it out on Spotify here.