(Image: City of Seattle)

New life for Seattle music and arts festival Bumbershoot could include a burst of energy straight out of Capitol Hill and First Hill as the annual summer event transitions to include “a year-round presence” in the city.

The Seattle Center and City of Seattle announced Wednesday that New Rising Sun, “a coalition of Seattle-based arts, entertainment, and cultural leaders” including Steven Severin of Neumos and Life on Mars, and Greg Lundgren of First Hill’s Museum of Museums and Vito’s, has been selected “to build a sustainable structure to drive the beloved festival forward in ways that maintain its original spirit, audaciousness, and appeal” after a “request for proposals” garnered bid from six groups hoping to produce the event.

According to the announcement, New Rising Sun proposes “the transformation of Bumbershoot into a year-round, community and nationally engaged arts and music events brand realigning the festival with Seattle’s current identity, growth and direction” —

The New Rising Sun team’s not-for-profit mission is to educate and seek out partnerships across the community to feature the region’s best art, food, film, comedy, music and performing arts. It will also recapture Bumbershoot’s spirit of discovery through visual arts spectacle, training and artmaking with the next generation of producers from underserved communities and focus on helping revitalize the downtown economy with a business model that attracts artists, tourists and creative culture.

The group must now draft a letter of intent that “outlines its terms then a detailed agreement that establishes parameters around use of the Seattle Center grounds and other components of a new Bumbershoot production arrangement.” The timing of the next Bumbershoot Festival will be determined as part of that process, the city said.

The news follows another Capitol Hill-flavored music festival at Seattle Center last summer as Capitol Hill Block Party producers organized the Day In Day Out festival to help fill the gap with Bumbershoot’s 2021 cancelation.

Despite restrictions limiting live music events in the city, it has been a busy time for Severin as he helped lead Seattle efforts to win more federal funding and support to help the city’s live music venues weather the ongoing pandemic.

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