Bumbershoot planning like juggling and doing jigsaw puzzle at same time
Aug 31, 2012, 6:11 AM | Updated: 12:49 pm
 Over 100,000 music lovers are expected for the annual Bumbershoot music festival at Seattle Center (MyNorthwest.com Photo/File) |
Seattle’s biggest music festival kicks off Saturday as Bumbershoot takes over Seattle Center. The guy in charge says there’s still plenty of last minute scrambling to pull it off.
“It’s like juggling and putting a jigsaw puzzle together all at the same time and we’ve got a lot of agendas and things we want to address in putting this whole thing together,” says Chris Porter, the programming director for Bumbershoot.
Porter says this year’s festival features over 100 musical acts. While there are plenty of big names like Tony Bennett and Jane’s Addiction, he says having a strong local flavor is an important part of his programming. Over 40 percent of the bands come from Seattle or the Northwest.
“We want to have a good focus on Seattle hence we want to make sure we program a lot of artists along those lines,” Porter says.
“I don’t like to look at somebody because they’re in Seattle city limits they’re any lesser or greater a band. They’re all great bands and they all fit in different situations at the festival.”
Porter says it takes a small army to pull off the festival, with hundreds of staffers and volunteers doing everything from setting up stages and fencing to getting food for all the artists.
“We’ve got quite a machine, there’s a whole army of people that will be coming in over the next few days and working with us.”
While much of the focus of the festival is on the Mainstage, Porter says a highlight for him is seeing smaller bands emerge on many of the side stages.
“To me so much of the essence of the festival is on some of the smaller stages,” he says.
By JOSH KERNS, MyNorthwest.com Reporter
