Bumbershoot Seattle: The Complete Guide
Last updated: August 22, 2026
Bumbershoot has never been particularly easy to categorize.
It’s a music festival, certainly, but over the years Bumbershoot has also made room for visual art, theater, comedy, dance, food, fashion, film and a seemingly endless supply of things you probably didn’t expect to see at a festival.
In 2026, that means 66 wrestlers, 37 fashion designers, 44 short films, 55 comedians, 27 restaurants, 81 skateboarders, 17 cats, four stunt BMX riders and one mermaid, according to the festival.
So, yes, there are bands. But there are also a lot of other things happening.
This is our guide to Bumbershoot 2026, along with a look back at the festival’s history and our coverage from the past several years.
Bumbershoot at a Glance
When: September 5–6, 2026
Where: Seattle Center
Tickets: Single-day tickets from $70.50; weekend passes from $125.50
Kids: Children 12 and under are free with an accompanying ticket-holding adult
Re-entry: Available with the appropriate ticket
Doors: 12:30 p.m. each day
Weather: Rain or shine
Bumbershoot 2026
Bumbershoot returns to Seattle Center over Labor Day weekend for its 53rd year.
There are some changes this year, including lower starting ticket prices and the option to purchase tickets that allow re-entry. The festival is also introducing Sip & Stroll, which allows those 21+ to carry alcoholic beverages around the festival grounds.
For families, children 12 and under can attend free with an accompanying ticket-holding adult.
The 2026 Music Lineup
The two headliners couldn’t be much different. Death Cab for Cutie is a longtime Seattle favorite that has been going strong for more than two decades, while Turnstile is one of the hottest acts in music right now.
You can catch Death Cab for Cutie closing down the opening night festivities on Sunday, September 6. Turnstile takes the top spot on Saturday, which is sure to be a raucous way to end Bumbershoot 2026.
Read: Death Cab for Cutie and Turnstile to Headline Bumbershoot 2026
Other artists scheduled for 2026 include Japanese Breakfast, Blood Orange, Bikini Kill, Orville Peck, Chase & Status, De La Soul, Peaches, Molchat Doma, Yves Tumor, ATARASHII GAKKO!, Sudan Archives, TOKiMONSTA, Noname, Sextile, W.I.T.C.H., Joey Valence & Brae, Silvana Estrada, Takuya Nakamura and Travis Thompson.
The lineup also includes Oblé Reed, Daughters of Venus, Anthers, Bexley, Aryana León, Juliet Daniel and American Flats.
SEE THE COMPLETE 2026 MUSIC LINEUP
There’s More Going On Than Music
The arts lineup includes Cat Circus, BUMBERMANIA!, skateboarding and BMX, fashion, puppetry, magic, film, sculpture and performance. Some of it is polished and carefully programmed. Some of it is a little harder to explain.
But you don’t necessarily need to arrive knowing what you want to see. Wander about the grounds and you’re guaranteed to trip across something fun.
The Arts at Bumbershoot
Cat Circus
Motley Zoo Animal Rescue is bringing Cat Circus back to Bumbershoot, with shelter cats and kittens taking part in a circus-inspired performance.
Yes, cats.
And yes, this is one of those Bumbershoot things that tends to attract a crowd.
BUMBERMANIA!
SOS Pro Wrestling returns with BUMBERMANIA!, which is less a conventional wrestling match than a full-on Bumbershoot production.
The festival’s description promises pirates, monkeys, local celebrities, lifeguards, trophy hunters and camp counselors. You’ll have to see it for yourself to figure out how all of that fits together.
Una the Mermaid
Una the Mermaid will bring an underwater performance to the festival inside a 900-gallon aquarium.
She’s based in Portland and combines underwater performance with immersive storytelling.
Gravity Park
Skate Like a Girl, Dope Planet, Ride and Glide and 35th North’s RAMP RIOT! are among the programming at Gravity Park, which gives skateboarders and BMX riders their own corner of the festival.
Fashion
Fashion has become a substantial part of Bumbershoot’s arts programming, and 2026 includes designers and collectives from the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
This year’s participants include Prairie Underground, New Affection, High Fashion High, Tech Couture and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week.
Comedy
The Comedy Coop moves into a new home inside Seattle Children’s Theatre this year, with performances from comedians from Seattle and around the Pacific Northwest.
The schedule includes The Disabled List, Best of Seattle, LAFF-A-BALL, #TheBLACKOUT, Seattle Expats, The Pacific North Weirdos, One Man Show A (Mostly) Women’s Comedy Show and Laughs Comedy Club.
There’s also a new Bumbershoot Comedy Showdown, produced with Laughs Comedy Club.
Read: Beat the Heat and Catch Seattle’s Funniest at Bumbershoot’s Comedy Coop
Film
Film can be easy to overlook when you’re trying to squeeze music and everything else into a Bumbershoot day.
The 2026 festival includes VIDEORAMA: Northwest Shorts, featuring Pacific Northwest filmmakers as part of a film program that includes 44 short films.
It’s worth checking the schedule before you arrive. A short film program can be an especially good break from the crowds and noise outside.
Food & Drink
Food has become a big part of the Bumbershoot experience, and Mixyplix has been following that side of the festival for several years.
Our earlier coverage included Seattle restaurants such as Musang, Mamnoon Street Eats, Local Tide, Jack’s BBQ and Pablo y Pablo.
Read: Bumbershoot Line-Up Rocks with Both Music and Food
In 2025, the festival also featured BumBEERshoot, VineShoot and Cocktail Corner alongside its restaurant vendors.
For 2026, Bumbershoot says 27 restaurants will be part of the culinary program.
One thing to remember: outside food isn’t allowed inside the festival. You can bring an empty refillable non-glass water bottle, and there are water fountains and filling stations around Seattle Center.
Bumbershoot Food Gallery
Photos by Jenise Silva
The Stuff You Don’t Expect
This may be my favorite part of Bumbershoot.
Not necessarily because every oddball attraction is a must-see, but because you don’t find this sort of programming at many other festivals.
In 2024, for example, Bumbershoot held a Big Fake Deep Foot competition, in which artists, animators and technologists created deepfake videos featuring Bigfoot.
Read: Bigfoot to Make its Presence Known at Bumbershoot This Year…or Maybe Not
The following year brought the Witch Temple, along with tarot, astrology and other mystical programming.
Read: Bumbershoot 2025: Art, Cat Circuses, and Witch Temples – Here’s What’s Coming
You get the idea.
A Brief History of Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot wasn’t originally Bumbershoot.
The festival began in 1971 as Festival ’71, a three-day event at Seattle Center that was intended to help boost Seattle’s economy during the Boeing downturn. More than 125,000 people attended.
The programming was all over the place in the best possible way: music, experimental art, laser shows, dance, theater, crafts, logging demonstrations, motorcycle races and a Hot Pants contest.
The festival returned as Festival ’72 the following year, with a poster designed by Claes Oldenburg and the One Reel Vaudeville Show becoming part of the event.
In 1973, the name changed to Bumbershoot, an old slang term for umbrella. Attendance reached roughly 200,000 and the festival expanded to five days.
By 1974, it had grown to 10 days and attracted an estimated 325,000 people.
The festival was free in those early years. That changed in 1980, when admission was introduced at $2.50 for most attendees.
One Reel also took over as producer that year, beginning another chapter in Bumbershoot’s history.
Bumbershoot and Seattle Music
Bumbershoot’s connection to Seattle music became particularly strong during the 1990s, when the festival was able to put established national acts, local musicians and emerging artists on the same campus.
The 1994 lineup is a good example. It included Bonnie Raitt and Ben Harper alongside Sunny Day Real Estate, 7 Year Bitch, Joan Jett, X, Me’Shell Ndegeocello and John Hiatt.
That’s a pretty wide-ranging lineup, but that kind of mix is nothing new for Bumbershoot.
Bumbershoot Music Gallery
Photos by Jenise Silva
The Long Hiatus
Bumbershoot’s history hasn’t been entirely smooth.
The 2019 festival was followed by a three-year interruption. The festival was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic, and the 2022 edition was also canceled as organizers worked on a new version of the event.
Bumbershoot returned in 2023 under a new partnership involving Third Stone, New Rising Sun and Seattle Center.
The relaunch put more emphasis on the combination of music, art, performance and community that had characterized the festival in its earlier years.
Bumbershoot Through the Years
We’ve been following the festival for a number of years, and our coverage gives you a chance to see how the event has changed from one year to the next.
2023
Our 2023 coverage included a look at the festival’s food and restaurant lineup.
Read: Bumbershoot Line-Up Rocks with Both Music and Food
2024
Our 2024 coverage ranged from the main music lineup to some of the more unusual corners of the festival.
We wrote about Pavement, Cypress Hill, Marc Rebillet, Lee Fields and Kim Gordon, as well as Bigfoot, Cat Circus, the Comedy Dome, Wig Farm, the Fashion District and Recess District.
We also filed firsthand reports from both days.
Bumbershoot 2024 Line-Up Promises Some Heat Labor Day Weekend
The Many (Music) Stages of Bumbershoot
Bigfoot to Make its Presence Known at Bumbershoot This Year…or Maybe Not
Bumbershoot Day 1: Insane in the Brain
Bumbershoot Day 2: People Make the Party
Mixy Music Monday: Bumbershoot Edition – Thee Sacred Souls
2025
Our coverage continued in 2025 with the Weezer and Janelle Monáe-led lineup and a closer look at the festival’s arts programming.
That included Cat Circus, BUMBERMANIA!, Gravity Park, the Witch Temple, Pole Pavilion, the Fashion District, Wig Farm, Vanishing Seattle and the Comedy Coop.
Bumbershoot 2025 Lineup: Weezer, Janelle Monáe, Among Top Acts
Bumbershoot 2025: Art, Cat Circuses, and Witch Temples – Here’s What’s Coming
We also covered Bumbershoot Gives Back, a program connecting festivalgoers with local organizations working on food insecurity.
Volunteer and Score Free Bumbershoot Tickets by Giving Back
How to Spend a Day at Bumbershoot
You don’t have to plan every minute. In fact, I wouldn’t.
Pick a few artists you really want to see, then leave some gaps. That’s when you can wander into something you didn’t know was happening.
See a smaller band. Watch some wrestling. Go to a comedy show. Look at the art. Eat something. Find the weirdest thing on the schedule.
And wear comfortable shoes. Seattle Center is a lot bigger once you’ve spent several hours walking around it.
One of our favorite ways to approach the music lineup is to look beyond the biggest stages. Our 2024 guide to the festival’s music stages highlighted artists including Psymon Spine, The Divorce, Grynch, Acid Tongue and Pom Pom Squad.
Read: The Many (Music) Stages of Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot Photos
Photos by Jenise Silva
What to Bring
Bring
- Comfortable shoes
- A refillable water bottle
- Sunscreen
- A light jacket
- Portable phone charger
- Earplugs
- Your ticket
- ID if you’re planning to drink
Leave at Home
- Outside food
- Alcohol
- Cannabis
- Weapons
- Glass containers
- Large coolers
- Drones
- Detachable-lens cameras
- Large umbrellas
- Chairs
Clear bags can be up to 18″ × 18″ × 6″. Non-transparent backpacks, shoulder bags and small handbags are permitted, although they may be searched.
Bumbershoot Tickets
Single-day tickets start at $70.50, with weekend passes starting at $125.50.
There are also General Admission, General Admission + Re-Entry and Deluxe ticket options.
Getting to Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot takes over Seattle Center, which makes public transportation a good option.
The Seattle Center Monorail connects the festival with downtown, while Metro and light rail provide other ways to get there.
Parking around Seattle Center can fill quickly, particularly during the busiest parts of the weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Bumbershoot 2026?
Bumbershoot takes place September 5–6, 2026, at Seattle Center in Seattle.
What is Bumbershoot?
Bumbershoot is a Seattle arts and music festival featuring music, visual art, food, comedy, fashion, film, performance and other creative programming.
When did Bumbershoot start?
The festival began in 1971 as Festival ’71 at Seattle Center. It adopted the Bumbershoot name in 1973.
Why is it called Bumbershoot?
“Bumbershoot” is an old slang term for an umbrella.
Is Bumbershoot a music festival?
Music is a major part of Bumbershoot, but the festival also features visual art, comedy, fashion, film, food, wrestling, skateboarding and other forms of performance.
Is Bumbershoot family friendly?
Yes. Bumbershoot is an all-ages event, and children 12 and under are free with an accompanying ticket-holding adult.
Can I leave Bumbershoot and come back?
In 2026, yes, with the appropriate re-entry ticket.
Can I walk around Bumbershoot with a drink?
In 2026, properly age-verified guests can carry alcoholic beverages around the festival grounds as part of the Sip & Stroll program.
What happens if it rains?
Bumbershoot is a rain-or-shine festival.
Bumbershoot Is Still Bumbershoot
More than 50 years after Festival ’71, Bumbershoot is still trying to fit a lot of things into one weekend.
That’s not always an easy thing to pull off. But Bumbershoot has never been particularly concerned with keeping things simple.
You might come for Death Cab for Cutie or Turnstile and end up spending an hour watching skateboarding. You might show up for the food and catch a comedy set. Or you might simply wander around Seattle Center and find something you hadn’t planned on seeing.
We’ve been covering Bumbershoot for several years, from the music lineup and arts programming to food, interviews, photography and our own reporting from the festival. We’ll keep updating this guide as more information about Bumbershoot 2026 becomes available.