Bumbershoot Festival 2025 Review: A Plea for Self-Identity

This year’s lineup included various offerings including aerial acrobatics, a Bumbershoot-themed Wrestlemania, a cat circus, local food vendors, and, of course, musical acts from not only our neck of the woods, but all over the world.

With construction underway at Seattle’s new Memorial Coliseum, this year’s festival had two main stages – one located on the grass between McCaw Hall and International Fountain and the other by the Mural Amphitheater – and secondary venues, such as The Vera Project and the SIFF Film Center, hosted smaller, local artists and comedy.

Vanishing Seattle’s “My City’s Filthy”

Possibly the most apt and imaginative work at this year’s fest, Vanishing Seattle’s “My City’s Filthy” served as a powerful reminder of a once-unique Seattle.

Tucked into the Art/Not Terminal Gallery, “My City’s Filthy” provided a unique home to some of Seattle’s lost legendary places and spaces.

Whether it’s oil-painted interpretations of the now-demolished viaduct in Laura Hamje’s appropriately-titled Vanished Viaduct Views or a massive display of iconic Seattle imagery sinking away (held up by Rainier Beer cans, of course), Vanishing Seattle’s exhibit exemplified not only a larger Seattle issue of gentrification, but a festival-specific problem, as well: a lack of cultural identity.

Motley Zoo Cat Circus

One of the more baffling opportunities this year was the Motley Zoo Cat Circus, which featured four cats from the Motley Zoo Animal Rescue.

With a description on Bumbershoot’s website as “sometimes performing death-defying acts, these furry felines will steal the show and capture your heart,” it’s no wonder why festivalgoers waited hours in line to spend five minutes with the cute creatures.

Inside the Geodesic Dome where the cat circus was hosted, the “sometimes” in the above description became glaringly obvious, as all of the cats were either dead asleep or laying in circus-themed beds, likely waiting to be pet.

While most left with smiles on their face, it’s easy to understand why some would feel like they wasted precious time. That being said, with a weak artist lineup to this year’s Bumbershoot Festival, maybe standing in line to see a couple of cats was worth the endless wait.

Weezer

Oh, Weezer. It’s been over 30 years since the release of the Blue Album, and while the music is timeless, they certainly showed their wares. Throughout their entire hour-long performance, lead singer Rivers Cuomo and company breezed through a medley of the band’s most popular tracks, including, but not limited to, “My Name is Jonas,” “Buddy Holly,” and, of course, “Pork and Beans.”

It’s not every day one witnesses a cash grab, but in the simplest terms, Weezer’s 2025 Bumbershoot appearance reeked of it. While they sounded fine, the band’s performance was stagnant, stiff, and awkward. At times, it felt as though the crowd was witnessing a live, in-person, millennial Country Bear Jamboree.

That being said, it makes perfect sense why the crowd was totally enamored with them. In many ways, this was the ideal band for a seemingly passionate, yet fundamentally chorophobic Seattle crowd.

As soon as Weezer’s one-song encore ended and the lights turned toward the festival grounds, the crowd rushed to throw up their hands in the shape of a “W” to honor their geek rock gods in what I can only describe as a gentrified-version of the Wu-Tang salute. Weezer looked down on them with mild appreciation and immediately shuffled back to their hotel rooms.

Spelling

It was not all doom and gloom, as a few offerings of up-and-coming artists proved to be mostly worthwhile. Spelling, for example, proved to be everything and more.

Spelling, otherwise known as Chrystia Cabral, emerged in the late 2010s as an intriguing and promising art pop/rock project. Since then, Spelling has released four critically acclaimed albums, including 2021’s The Turning Wheel.

Cabral and crew gracefully approached the Mural stage at 3:15 sharp on Sunday afternoon. Despite blistering heat and Cabral “fighting off the flu,” Spelling were exceptional. Cabral’s ethereal vocals reverberated between the hearts of the small crowd in attendance, which hosted Digable Planets’ own Ishmael Butler and fellow artists on the lineup.

It’s a shame that they were only provided a quick, 30-minute set, as their magical performance of tracks off of their latest, “Portrait of My Heart,” proved to be a bright light in a rather dim festival.

Janelle Monae

As the Prince intro over the speakers culminated with flashing lights, Janelle Monae arrived on-time, in a perfectly fitted black and white suit, ready to provide the unworthy Seattle crowd a performance they would never forget.

Monae, whose career spans decades and mediums, is a true star. Her hour-long set was mesmerizing and served as a stark contrast to the “performance” that Weezer put on the night prior.

Despite a small stage, Monae ate up every square foot. With electric moves and fabulous costume changes, Monae put on a show that made waiting all-day worthwhile.

Compared to Weezer’s rigidity, Monae seemed weightless, floating across the stage with grace and power – never once losing command of the audience. In fact, she even invited multiple members from the audience to join her and her truly sensational band on stage to share a moment of total release and pure dance.

What could have been a completely cringeworthy moment turned into a beautiful highlight, as all the selected audience members let go and embraced the chance to be swallowed up by Monae’s sound.

Closing out with “Make Me Feel” and a trio of tracks off 2010’s excellent The ArchAndroid, Monae left the stage as powerful and commanding as she entered.

Despite a limited set time, Monae and crew provided the Bumbershoot crowd with an incredible set, marked by perfect performances, sharp choreography, and an electric vibe that I wish spilled over into all aspects of the fest.

At a Glance

As Monae closed out her catalogue-spanning and festival-defining set, a sense of profound sadness washed over me. What once was a booming festival that hosted Tyler, The Creator and The Weeknd is now a shell of its former self. Granted, current renovations to the Seattle Center and, specifically, Memorial Stadium limit the scope of Bumbershoot, it’s still hard to grapple with this idea.

Sure, you can chalk it up to pandemic restructuring and AEG’s departure, but when other major cities like Austin and Chicago book artists such as Hozier, A$AP Rocky, and Sabrina Carpenter, it’s hard not to raise an eyebrow or two when festivalgoers are subjected to Weezer and TikTok and “Frozen II” famous AURORA. Hell, even Iowa booked Lana Del Rey.

It’s time to be open, honest, and label it what it is – a full-blown public identity crisis. With Capitol Hill Block Party (and the relatively new Day In, Day Out) seemingly catering toward Gen Z and younger millennials, Bumbershoot has become a testing ground for an aging Seattle audience. The primary issue with that is audience limitation.

Tickets dropped down to nearly $150 for both days before the Labor Day weekend (thanks to a “generous donation by the Ballmer Family”), which is a telltale sign of poor ticket sales, no doubt due to initial negative responses to the festival schedule.

We, as cultivators and consumers of culture, need to put our foot down. While art is subjective, there is good art and there is very obviously bad and performative art.

If Third Stone and New Rising Sun want to utilize diversity and inclusion as selling points, they need to follow suit by booking equally diverse and worthwhile artists. There is absolutely no reason to subject Janelle Monae, one of our greatest living performers, to a runner-up Sunday night, main stage slot.

In addition, one could go so far as to say that the constant spamming of Amazon ads before every performance is inherently anti-art.

With inclusions of cringe-worthy wrestling, bizarre fashion shows, and mediocre comedy, amidst a slew of embarrassing offerings and a terribly weak lineup, it’s hard not to question who this is for.

While this may be more aligned with the Bumbershoot of the olden days, it’s hard to capture that original spirit as Seattle, whether we want to admit it or not, is no longer the groundbreaking art space that it once was.

There needs to be a clear distinction that this is an authentic representation of Seattle, and not a poor man’s San Francisco. But, even then, Seattle’s culture has been entirely eroded by our own personal tech revolution that it may be impossible to return to the bustling art scene of the ’70s and ’90s.

And, if cat circuses and “Bumbermania” wrestling are our (unfortunate) new identity, then there cannot be a sense of testing the waters. Either fully commit or outright abandon.

Regardless, Bumbershoot has some serious identity issues that it needs to alleviate before next year’s fest. Otherwise, we may be witnessing the downfall of Seattle’s longest running festival. And please, no more Weezer.

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