Comments on Seattle Center Vs. Bumbershoot

seems like Seattle Center has some trouble with festivals in general, not just Bumbershoot. Didn't Folklife have a bunch of troubles a few years back too? Now Pride and Bumbershoot.

Slow down Josh, after calling attention to Nancy Drew's brilliance yesterday, I've already signed up for two new credit cards and have 809 books on order with Amazon.

Can. Not. Stop. I'm sure I'll be bored with them in a month. I can resell them somewhere to pay for all that ink, or buy supplies to to knit a flag for the Space Needle reading "JOSH FEIT SAID IT HERE FIRST (he'll be the first to tell you about it too)."

@2,
I totally agree. Nancy Drew is awesome.

When I were a lad, our neighbors had a complete set of matching Nancy Drews in a special bookcase that was sold with them. There must have been a hundred of the damn things, and I read them all. I used to follow my sister over there and borrow their books (and watch my sister's friend's sister undress in the basement, woo woo).

I have such fond memories of getting stoned and drunk at memorial stadium...

I worry that the Seattle Center will become another passive park/rival to the sculpture garden. Don't touch! Don't sit on the grass! No music!

One thing Seattle needs is one place to gather thousands of people to get loud and have fun. Pride, Folklife, Bumbershoot, even Bite of Seattle.

Re the subhead, when did Bumbershoot become a "music fest"?

I worry that the Seattle Center will become another passive park/rival to the sculpture garden. Don't touch! Don't sit on the grass! No music!

One thing Seattle needs is one place to gather thousands of people to get loud and have fun. Pride, Folklife, Bumbershoot, even Bite of Seattle.

You're essentially "totally" agreeing with yourself Josh, since you brought Nancy Drew up first. It's what you do best.

Get yourself a new column on children's books, and let Charles take over the News duties. From a quick archive search, he was the last one to slog about Tony Blair, who is annoucing his retirement tomorrow.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2527713.ece

@9,
True. I love Nancy Drew.

"Come up with a clever code with your beau in case one of you is ever kidnapped." —The Invisible Intruder

I've been reading about these changes, particularly the plan to raze the stadium, in the dailies and even the Weakly for a year. Thanks for catching up.

What I don't think you've been reading about, though, is One Reel's reaction. An interesting piece of the picture.

So memorial stadium is the only venue that can handle the crowds since Key arena is booked by the storm...

Something tells me that won't be a problem for much longer.

Crosscut had this earlier
http://www.crosscut.com/recreation/2291/

Keep Memorial stadium, kill the fun forest, all the good rides are gone.

Bumbershoot...

Quantity is not quality.

One reel has, over the course of the past few years been on a fast downward spiral.

First they screwed the pooch on WOMAD, which at least had strong headliners.

Then they lost summer nights.

Last year they shaved off a day off of Bumbershoot. So, now it is 3 days instead of 4 days of mediocre crap.

One reel needs to go.

Some new blood in this city would be a nice change.

Get real Letsbeserious.

Bumbershoot has been steadily improving the last few years. Much better overall fest than Coachella with a broader variety of music, lower ticket price, great local bands, much more and better hip hop, great art, comedy, theater, dance, film. Shit, it's the best festival in the US. Killing memorial stadium would mean no Wu-Tang, no Shins, no Pixies, No A Tribe Called Quest, no Modest Mouse, No Beck, no REM. If the Center screws Bumbershoot everyone should be fired, it's one of the few things that makes Seattle unique - what other US City has anything similar?

I'd hate to see Memorial Stadium go away for many reasons, some having to do with Bumbershoot, but also because it's where the Seattle Public Schools have their games. I think it's neat that they still do that at the Seattle Center.

I miss a lot of the more folky elements of the center - and I really miss the old Fun Forest, with its campy rides. Stupid EMP. At least the fun forest was, well, FUN.

Oh no! We might have a nice park without a chintsy stadium downtown. The horrors!

However, a nice big park and a good music festival aren't mutually exclusive unless the park is managed by idiots.

It's Chintzy, dear - with a Z. When you call someone an idiot, always make sure to use your spell check.

love bumper.

their needs should almost dictate the 30 year plan for the center.

of course, the yuppies are most concerned about grass and place for the dog to shit, not rock and roll....or cheap fun for the masses.

@21 - you could have both, but it would take some planning by people who know what they're doing. From Kiley's article, it sounds like that's not happening. This sounds like it's going to be the Mayor's next Monorail/ Viaduct/ Sonics/ Summer Nights. Nickels has big time ideas, small time execution.

This is timely, not just for Bumbershoot, but for Pride and all the other things that have bit the dust (like Summer Nights at the Pier), or can't even get off the ground with what's going on in this city - especially Seattle Center. Didn't they just pay for a huge renovation of the Fun Forest a few years ago? Now the FF owe 800K in back rent, and the Center is ready to tear it out. So now they want the voters to approve MILLIONS more for plans that will probably not meet anyone's needs. Brilliant. And why can't concerts happen at the Pier? For a supposedly rotting pier that isn't safe they have been putting pretty heavy trucks and equipment on that pier for the Aquarium renovation. Hmmm. That started right after the concerts were told to move. Interesting.

Fun Forest (nee "The Gayway", btw) suffered from lack of imagination and maintenance, and when the EMP came in, a big chunk of their real estate went away.

(I still maintain that the "Rocket to Mars" ride was MUCH more exciting than anything the EMP ever put forward.)

This doesn't mean that a small amusement park on the center grounds is doomed to failure. It just needs to be rethunk.

Good story to cover, Josh, but I'm not sure it exactly jives with what I have actually heard at the meetings.

I believe one option would keep the stadium, but scale it down by removing the top tiers. That still leaves sizeable capacity for almost all of the shows that Bumbershoot puts in there.

Another option does include a smaller amphitheater with an underground parking lot below, but all of the maps I looked at seemed to indicate open green space beyond the amphitheater.

Has anyone looked into how many people could actually be accomodated on "the lawn" beyond the proposed new space? I inferred that this would more than compensate for crowd capacity.

Of course, SPD might put the kibosh on the potential crowd control nightmare since there'd be no gates to funnel folks through, but they somehow manage Summer Nights and Fireworks and Hempfest in other parks.

CVD@18. I agree. I've wandered over to Memorial Stadium to watch HS football night games.

The stadium would be greatly improved if field turf was installed and the "stadium" aka QA sports field became more of a viable part of neighborhood sporting activities. Just look at how well that recipe is working at Cal Anderson.

still waiting for our skatepark. fuck those lying sacks of shit.