Overview
Bumbershoot '14
In 2014, Bumbershoot entered a period of quiet recalibration.
Rather than attempting a dramatic reinvention, the festival focused on stability, maintaining its established structure while making smaller adjustments behind the scenes. Produced by One Reel, Bumbershoot continued presenting its familiar mix of music, visual art, film, comedy, and performance across Seattle Center during Labor Day weekend.
These adjustments were largely operational. Organizers began refining production logistics, partnerships, and scheduling in response to changing audience behavior and the rising costs of producing a large outdoor festival in the city. Across the festival industry, events were becoming increasingly specialized, often focusing on tightly curated music lineups or destination experiences.
Bumbershoot, by contrast, remained committed to its broader multidisciplinary format, a sprawling urban festival that welcomed many forms of creativity under one umbrella.
The goal in 2014 was not transformation but continuity: preserving the festival's long-standing tradition while carefully adapting to new realities in the cultural and economic landscape.
More than forty years after Festival ’71, Bumbershoot remained a familiar part of Seattle’s Labor Day rhythm, even as the future of the festival’s structure and sustainability continued to evolve.
Bumbershoot 2014's line up included: Wu-Tang Clan / Elvis Costello and the Imposters / Panic! At the Disco / The Afghan Whigs / The Both / Walk The Moon / G-Easy / Bobby Womack / Danny Brown / Poliça / Mac DeMarco / Big Freedia / SZA / Yuna / The Lonely Forest / Gregory Porter / Sam Lachow / Shelby Earl / Youngblood Hawke / RA Scion / Donnie & Joe Emerson / Fly Moon Royalty / Grayskul / Tomo Nakayama / Iska Dhaaf / McTuff / Naomi Wachira / Evan Flory Barnes + Infinity Upright! / Cataldo / Cumulus / Dude York / Modern Kin / Otieno Terry / The Replacements / The Head and the Heart / Schoolboy Q / Los Lobos / Bootsy Collins / The Dismemberment Plan / Luscious Jackson / Pickwick / Kishi Bashi / Red Fang / Big Star’s Third / Iamsu! / Gregory Alan Isakov / Charlie Musselwhite / Mission of Burma / Architecture in Helsinki / The Dream Syndicate / Schoolyard Heroes / San Fermin / Negativland / Kins / Polyrhythmics / ILLFIGHTYOU / Jarv Dee / Sandrider / The 44’s with Kirk “Eli” Fletcher / Hobosexual / Falls, Highlands / Hermigervill / Manatee Commune / Golden Gardens / Hot Wired Rhythm Band / Foster the People / J. Cole / Capital Cities / Neon Trees / Real Estate / Nada Surf / The Reverend Horton Heat / Aer / Twin Shadow / Jonathan Richman / Valerie June / Bomba Estéreo / Hurray for the Riff Raff / Rose Windows / Mexican Institute of Sound / DahkaBrakha / Campfire Ok / Bad Things / Julianna Barwick / Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas / Jacco Gardner / La Luz / Current Swell / Tangerine / Hoba Hoba Spirit / Kore Ionz / Jessica Pratt / Massy Ferguson / Old Man Luedecke / Western Haunts / Smokey Brights
