It's all in the cards: A Bumbershoot 2025 review

This year’s Bumbershoot is in the books and while there were noticeable growing pains, it was mostly a success. Compared to last year, the two-day event had fewer stages (three vs four) and fewer acts (50 compared to 68). But just because it was smaller doesn’t mean it was less fun than years past.

During my time on Seattle Center campus I manged to catch 26 artists (half of which were local). When I wasn’t enjoying live music I filled my time with witches, wrestling, aerialists, skateboarders and some modern art. Here’s a look at how my Bumbershoot went down.

A curious start possibly forecasted Bumbershoot’s future: I started my weekend at the Witches Hut, one of four geodesic domes with various themes on the festival grounds. My goal was to get a tarot reading. I was a little hesitant to have my cards read because the last time I did so, which was more than 10 years ago, my reading was a little too accurate. The cards said I was due for a change in my life, and sure enough less than two weeks later I lost my job and started a near two-year stint of unemployment.

So what did the cards have in store for me this time? Well, it was a mostly generic reading because that is what I asked for, but it was still insightful. The cards my reader drew were: The Blessed Oak, Queen of Stones, The Archer and the Four of Bows.

I’m paraphrasing here and working from memory so I could be wrong on all of this, but here’s what I think it all meant. The Blessed Oak symbolizes things falling apart and being rebuilt. The Queen of Stones is supposed to represent seeing the big picture while The Archer is representing sifting through all the noise and focusing on specific things. And I think the Four of Bows was meant to represent community and remembering to enjoy life while focusing on the goals that The Archer is honing in on.

Interesting, right? More on my tarot reading later.

“Bill Gates” got his ass beat: The Recess District was my next stop after getting my cards read. There I watched SOS Wrestling, a wrestling company out of Tacoma. I caught the beginning of a royal rumble where multiple wrestlers entered the squared circle and grappled with one another. My favorite wrestler was “Bill Gates.” (pictured)

As his name implies, he was dressed up as Bill Gates. His gimmick was that every time another wrestler attempted to hit him, he unzipped his fannypack and broke out a checkbook to try to pay off his opponent. It was funny every time. I didn’t stick around to watch the entire match, but I assume “Bill Gates” lost, because heels like him almost always lose.

There were lots of local hits: The Vera Project was where almost all the local talent was to be found. And just about every local artist I caught seized their Bumbershoot moment and delivered enjoyable sets. I was amazed by three extremely talented voices that I feel definitely deserve more attention than they’ve been receiving. First was Liv Victorino. She was accompanied by a three-piece band and her voice conveyed a beautiful amount of emotional depth. Unfortunately, the set was Liv’s second-to-last show. She told the crowd she’s hanging it up after a Sept. 4 performance at Hidden Hall.

I was conflicted on whether to leave Pretty Girls Make Graves‘ raucous set to check out Amelia Day, but I am glad I did. Her powerhouse vocals sounded massive inside the confines of the Vera Project. She feels like one of those artists who just needs one break to go her way and then stardom will come calling. Oh, and PGMG were everything I wanted out of a reunion set. Their performance transported me back to 2005 while the tunes still sounded fresh and relevant in today’s musical landscape.

The other amazing voice I encountered came from Avery Cochrane. Her pop songs aren’t the type of music that’s typically found on my playlist, but her vocal talent made me stop and pay attention.

While Avery Cochrane made me stop and pay attention, Tezatalks (pictured) demanded my attention with her magnetic stage presence. I was waiting all weekend for a local artist to blow me away and she did it. Her set of self-described of “hardcore pop” music, think fuzzy electro-pop-meets-hardcore-rap with fuzzy guitars and bouncy beats, is likely what I will remember most about this year’s Bumbershoot. In fact, if there was a winner of Bumbershoot — because art is a competetion ya’ll — it would have to be Tezatalks.

Other notable locals I saw were Jaws of Brooklyn, who perfectly melded 60s girl group vocals and garage rock; Mega Cat, which opened their set with a rowdy version of “Bulls On Parade;” and Two Minute Hate, a hardcore band that played a song with lyrics about being stuck in a complicated phone tree from Hell.

There were a few local misses too: I sort of knew what I was getting into when I checked out Fleetwood Snack (pictured). After all, his artist photo is a guy dressed up in a ghillie suit. But man, listening to him play odd saxophone notes over abrasive drum and bass beats while covered in a grass suit was not my jam at all. I walked out after five minutes. Sub Pop signee JCRG had the same effect on me with their noise rock, causing me to abandon their set after two songs.

When I saw Great Grandpa at Bumbershoot in 2018 I declared them my new favorite local band. I was excited to see them on the main stage Saturday, but my excitement turned to disappointment during their set. Their new material is maudlin-sounding pop compared to the high-energy rock of their earlier stuff that I enjoyed so much. I don’t think it meshed well with Saturday afternoon’s sunshine vibes.

What wasn’t local was also good: Of course there was more than local talent at the festival, and every non-local act I saw seemed to be on their festival A-game. Digable Planets brought the rhymes and beats to the main stage to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Blowout Comb” and they ended their set with “Cool Like That.” Frankie and the Witch Fingers (pictured) brought the rock to the second day of the festival with a heavy, loud and fun set of jams.

I didn’t think it would be possible for The Linda Lindas to play a festival set that was better than their set at the Showbox earlier this year but they proved me wrong. New York indie veterans Budos Band made pockets of the main stage crowd boogie with their instrumental grooves. And keeping up the high-spirited energy, New Orleans group Tank and the Bangas threw a big old dance party over on the Mural stage.

The artists I plan to revisit: I am admittedly ambivalent towards Car Seat Headrest, but I liked enough of what I heard during the 20 minutes of their set I caught to want to revisit their catalog. Indigo de Souza was new to me before seeing her impressive afternoon set Saturday. I’ll be adding her tunes to my must-listen playlist soon. The same can be said for the youthful indie folksters of Hey, Nothing. Their set in the sunshine at the Mural stage was sublime.

The headliners delivered the goods: While the undercard was where all the good action was to be found, the main headliners did not disappoint. Weezer played late into the night Saturday with a set of hits that went until 11:30 at night. It was billed as one of the band’s Voyage to the Blue Planet sets where they play all of the Blue Album in full, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the mighty =W= played a hits set that featured five songs from Pinkerton, including the b-side “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly.”

I didn’t stick around to watch Aurora, Sunday’s actual headliner (what can I say, two days of Bumbershoot is tiring), but I did watch the supremely talented Janelle Monae (pictured). Her Prince protege pedigree presented itself throughout her 75-minute set. There was lots of dancing, a few costume changes, a cracking band and on top of all that she delivered the best vocal performance I saw all weekend.

Closing thoughts, and about that tarot reading: There’s no deying that it is a tough year for music festivals. I don’t envy Bumbershoot producers New Rising Sun for having to put together a festival with such historic meaning as Bumbershoot. It’s got to be a difficult job. That said, I do have a few suggestions for next year’s festival.

Both comedy and locals need a bigger stage. The comedy offerings were held in a 92-person capacity room, leaving many outside waiting in line when they could be laughing. And the Vera Project often hit capacity too, creating long lines of people wanting to see live music.
Bring back the Fisher stage. It was nice to see the wrestling, aerialists and skateboarders get more exposure, but this year’s Bumbershoot could’ve benefited from a fourth stage. Maybe split some of the main stage and Mural stage acts and add sprinkle in a few locals to create the fourth stage?
Keep ticket prices low. I’m beating a dead horse here, but the ticket prices were once again pretty steep. This year’s programming was excellent and I know production costs aren’t cheap, but anything that can be done to lower the cost of admission can only help the festival. I have no solution for how to do this and I know it’s something organizers want to do, I just wanted to not ignore the elephant in the room and note cost is a barrier of entry for a lot of people.

Perhaps in an effort to get ideas for next year Bumbershoot should get its tarot cards read. Or better yet, Bumbershoot can have my reading. After all, Bumbershoot is something that has fallen apart and been rebuilt (The Blessed Oak), organizers need to keep a big-picture view of things (Queen of Stones) while focusing on what makes Bumbershoot special (The Archer) all the while catering to the community (Four of Bows).

Constructive criticism and unsolicited advice aside, overall it was a very successful Bumbershoot. The smaller footprint made it easier to navigate the Seattle Center grounds, and the headliners were some of the best out of the last few years.