Bumbershoot drops Memorial Stadium, announces 2011 details

One Reel, the company that operates Bumbershoot, has announced the first details of this year’s festival and they include lower ticket costs, new partners and changes of venues.

The biggest change of note is that Bumbershoot’s mainstage will return to the 14,000-capacity KeyArena and not the 22,000-capacity Memorial Stadium. Although KeyArena is a smaller venue in size it does provide Bumbershoot an indoor venue for mainstage performances. There will be two mainstage acts performances per day with two acts per performance at this year’s Bumbershoot.

Ticket prices have changed for 2011 compared to last year’s tiered ticketing options. Tickets for Bumbershoot 2011 can be purchased by members of the Bumbershoot Bumberclub beginning Tuesday at 10 a.m. for the price of $75 for a three-day pass, or $29 for a single-day pass good for any day of the festival. You can become a member of the Bumbershoot Bumberclub for free by clicking here.

After the limited number of Bumberclub tickets are sold out tickets will be made available to the general public at the cost of $90 for a three-day pass. Single tickets for specific days will go on sale after the Bumbershoot lineup is announced later this spring at the cost of $35 in advance or $45 at the gate.

Another change to Bumbershoot involves the programming at EMP’s Sky Church. This year One Reel has partnered with Decibel Festival to make the Sky Church the Decibel Stage. Decibel Festival is known for spotlighting local, national and international electronic artists.

Other venue changes include:

  • A stage on the north fountain lawn and another area TBA, which will replace the Northwest Court and Broad Street lawn stages.
  • Music will return to Exhibition Hall and Center Square, which was in front of EMP last year, will not feature a stage in 2011 or 2012.
  • The Bagley Wright Theatre has been added as a comedy venue and will showcase comedians along with the Intiman Theatre.
  • The visual arts exhibits will move from the Northwest Rooms to Seattle Center Pavilion and the adjacent courtyard.

About Travis Hay

Travis Hay is a music journalist who has spent the past 20 years documenting and enjoying Seattle's music scene. He's written for various outlets including MSN Music, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, Seattle Weekly, Pearl Jam's Ten Club, Crosscut.com and others.

View all posts by Travis Hay →

2 Comments on “Bumbershoot drops Memorial Stadium, announces 2011 details”

  1. Thanks for the write-up, Travis! Just wanted to clarify that there will be two shows on the Mainstage (afternoon and evening), and each show will feature at least two acts (total of 4 acts per day). This was the format for the Mainstage in prior years, except last year, which was just a single multi-act show in the evening.

    Thanks again… carry on!

    1. Thanks for the clarification. It’s good to hear there will be afternoon headlining sets again.

Comments are closed.