1973

Bumbershoot '73

In 1973, the festival officially found its name.

That year, the event was formally dubbed Bumbershoot, an old slang word for umbrella, and expanded to five full days. Attendance swelled to roughly 200,000 visitors, confirming that what began as a civic experiment had become a defining cultural gathering.

Seattle historian Paul Dorpat writes:

“In 1973 the festival was officially named Bumbershoot — an old-fashioned word for umbrella.”
— Paul Dorpat, Bumbershoot’s Formative Years (1971–1979), HistoryLink.org

The name wasn’t universally embraced at first. Some critics found it too quirky, too strange, too unserious. But that playful, slightly eccentric identity stuck, and ultimately became inseparable from the festival itself.

The programming reflected that same umbrella-spanning philosophy. National jazz artists appeared alongside deeply local performers. Experimental theater, participatory art, community showcases, and large-scale spectacles filled the Seattle Center campus. The festival embraced both cultural institutions and grassroots creativity, a wide canopy of experiences under one name.

Dorpat captures the spirit of those early years as something intentionally eclectic and defiantly open — not a single-genre event, but a “multimedia extravaganza” that resisted neat definition.

By 1973, Bumbershoot wasn’t just a mayor’s arts festival anymore. It was a Labor Day destination. A civic ritual. A word people learned to say, and then proudly claim.

Source & Credit

Portions of this history are quoted and adapted from: Paul Dorpat, “Bumbershoot’s Formative Years (1971–1979),” HistoryLink.org Essay 10027, posted September 1, 1999.
Available at: https://www.historylink.org/File/10027