Overview
Bumbershoot '11
Official Poster Artwork by Jesse LeDoux
By 2011, the festival landscape across the United States had changed dramatically.
Destination festivals and single-genre events were rapidly expanding, with massive productions built around tightly curated music lineups and travel-driven audiences. Against this backdrop, Bumbershoot increasingly stood apart. Produced by One Reel, the festival remained a large, urban, multidisciplinary event rooted in Seattle Center rather than a remote destination site.
This distinction was both a strength and a challenge.
While many festivals were narrowing their focus to maximize ticket sales and brand clarity, Bumbershoot continued presenting a broad cultural mix: major concerts alongside film screenings, dance performances, visual art exhibitions, literary events, and participatory installations. The format reflected the festival’s founding philosophy, a wide cultural umbrella where multiple art forms shared space.
By this point, the central challenge facing the festival had shifted. It was no longer simply about sustaining the event financially, but about defining Bumbershoot’s place within a rapidly evolving festival market.
Organizers increasingly asked a key question:
How could a large, civic, cross-disciplinary festival remain distinctive in an era dominated by highly specialized music events?
Even as that question took shape, Bumbershoot continued to draw large crowds to Seattle Center each Labor Day weekend, maintaining its role as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most visible cultural gatherings — and one of the few major festivals in the country still committed to presenting so many forms of creativity under one umbrella.
Bumbershoot 2011's line up included: Daryl Hall & John Oates / Wiz Khalifa / Ray LaMontagne & the Pariah Dogs / Broken Social Scene / The Presidents of the United States of America / Big Boi / Macklemore & Ryan Lewis / The Kills / The Reverend Horton Heat / Minus the Bear / Fitz and The Tantrums / Butthole Surfers / Mavis Staples / Carbon Leaf / Little Dragon / Leon Russell / Toro y Moi / Over the Rhine / Anti-Flag / Phantogram / Grant Lee Buffalo / Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue / Urge Overkill / STRFKR / Das Racist / Shabazz Palaces / The Lonely Forest / Warpaint / Vetiver / Jessica Lea Mayfield / DåM-FunK + Master Blazter / NoMeansNo / Charles Bradley / Atari Teenage Riot / Vusi Mahlasela / MarchFourth Marching Band / Vendetta Red / Sharon Van Etten / Brite Futures / Tennis / Dennis Coffey / Thee Oh Sees / Pentagram / Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible / Väsen / Head Like a Kite / YACHT / Eisley / Kendrick Lamar / Greensky Bluegrass / Mad Rad / Quadron / The Jim Jones Revue / Ian Moore & The Lossy Coils / Champagne Champagne / Grand Hallway / You Am I / Astronautalis / Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside / School of Seven Bells / Dom / PS I Love You / Joe Pug and the Hundred Mile Band / Davila 666 / My Goodness / AgesandAges / Wayne Horvitz “Cafe Paloma Band” / LAKE / Yuni in Taxco / Kore Ionz / Campfire Ok / Meklit Hadero / Craft Spells / Beat Connection / Motopony / Sol / Purity Ring / Whalebones / Caleb Klauder Country Band / Truckasauras / Valient Thorr / Jayme Stone: Room of Wonders / Pickwick / Allen Stone / Red Fang / Scribes / Massy Ferguson / Tycho / Wagons / Shelby Earl / Ravenna Woods / Free the Robots / Thomas Marriott’s Human Spirit / Witchburn / Kaylee Cole / Nice Nice / Kris Orlowski & The Passenger String Quartet / Emancipator / Lemolo / SPLATINUM / Legendary Oaks / MASH HALL / Fly Moon Royalty / HTRK / The Horde and the Harem / Lusine / Gail Pettis Quartet / Kasey Anderson and The Honkies / Curtains For You / Tomten / Pezzner / 214 / LawnChair Generals / WD4D / Shigeto / Ill Cosby / The Sight Below / The Great Mundane / Natasha Kmeto / DJ Introcut / DJ Nordic Soul / DJ Justin Timbreline / Doug Loves Movies Podcast Starring Doug Benson / Comedy Bang Bang Podcast with Scott Aukerman & Paul F. Tompkins / The Improvised Shakespeare Company / Eugene Mirman / The Gregory Brothers / Deon Cole / Anthony Jeselnik / Wayne Federman / Kyle Kinane / Amy Schumer / Rory Scovel / Hari Kondabolu / Kurt Metzger / Julian McCullough / Freestyle Love Supreme / Laff HoleSeattle Sketchfest / howcase / The Humor Program / Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery / Funbucket / The Ashley Judd Comedy Hour / Comedy is O.K. / Kitty Cats in Pirate Hats / Trey McIntyre Project / Spectrum Dance Theater / Kristin Hersh: Paradoxical Undressing / Whim W’Him / Dan Savage & Terry Miller: It Gets Better / Colin Meloy & Carson Ellis: Wildwood / The Writing of Battlestar Galactica w/Ronald D. Moore / Christopher Rice / Miss Pamela Des Barres / Vegan Panel / From Music to Literature / Dublin Novelists / The Stranger’s Genius Awards / Andrea Gibson / Youth Speaks Seattle / Seattle Poetry Slam Team / Why Nerds? Why Old Timey? Why Now? / Why Censorship? Why Revolution? Why Now? / Why 3D? Why Autotune? Why Now? / Book-It Repertory Theatre / Marya Sea Kaminski / Wing-It Productions / Gesamtkunstwerk! / Dead Parrots Society / Puppet This! / Joanna Horowitz / Seattle Sounders FC Sound Wave Band / Orkestar Zirkonium / Orange Man / SpUrbans / Emerald City Improv / aLIVe: a Low Impact Vehicle / The Magic Show / Bumber by Number / ExpeditionvSkater’s Gauntlet / American Poster Institute’s Flatstock 31 / 1 Reel Film Festival curated by SIFF
