After debuting last summer, Seattle music festival Palestine Will Live Forever is coming to Capitol Hill this weekend at the Volunteer Park Amphitheater.
Launched in 2024 by DJ Gabriel Teodros with an event in Seward Park, the second year of the benefit festival is scheduled to include appearances by Macklemore, Prometheus Brown, Fem Du Lit, and more. Continue reading
Doc Our Block follows the rise of CHAZ, the fall of CHOP, and the impact on Seattle
This year the annual PNW focused Local Sightings Film Festival will not only celebrate work and artists from across the region from September 16-25, but also a quarter century of local film. Presented by Capitol Hill’s Northwest Film Forum, this year’s festival will feature 82 works, including narrative films, documentaries, experimental films, animation, web series, and music videos.
“It’s really a brilliant sort of broad and delicious sampling of all of the different things that folks working [and] living in the region are getting up to,” said Rana San, artistic director of NWFF.
Local Sightings Film Festival 2022
Hybrid — Online and in person at 1515 12th Ave’s NWFF
Sept. 16-25, 2022
Presented by Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, the 25th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival is a virtual-and-in-person showcase of creative communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. The 2022 program, which runs from September 16–25, features a competitive selection of curated short film programs and feature films, inviting regional artists to experiment, break, and remake popular conceptions around filmmaking and film exhibition. Local Sightings champions emerging and established talent, supports the regional film industry, and promotes diverse media as a critical tool for public engagement.
As 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the festival, it also makes one year since NWFF has been open to the public following pandemic-related closures. To show its commitment to accessibility, NWFF will host the festival in a hybrid format, although a couple of films will only be showcased in person, such as the 55-minute documentary Our Block which follows the rise of CHAZ, the fall of CHOP, and the impact on Seattle.
Submissions generally consist of films that are made within the last 18 months, according to San, who said how each year’s themes may look different based on what filmmakers are focusing on.
“We go into programming with a completely open mind and we let the submissions from each year inform and dictate what is programmed and what themes emerge,” said San. “The filmmakers are the ones who are telling the stories–they’re the ones who’re identifying what is most important in this moment.” Continue reading
As Seattle observes the holiday for the first time with a quiet Monday at City Hall, there was a wealth of Juneteenth celebrations across the city and the Central District Sunday including a day of roller skate dancing in Judkins Park.
The Juneteenth Celebration: Skate Party & Community Day was hosted by the Northwest African American Museum and included complimentary skate rentals for people to join the fun.
You’ll want to keep those wheels rolling. Pride on Capitol Hill will feature a roller party at the smooth and well paved AIDS Memorial Pathway Plaza on Saturday: Continue reading
11th Ave is a good place for a street fair (Image: CHS)
A coalition of Capitol Hill artists and performers are coming together in an effort to bolster both the economy of the neighborhood as well as the bonds within it, especially among the BIPOC community.
On The Block Second Saturdays will be a recurring event that will take place on 11th Ave between E. Pike and Pine, with the first edition scheduled just two weeks away on May 14. It will be held every second Saturday into October of this year. The event will run from 1 PM to 9 PM.
“What we hope to do is build a kind of community that will level the playing field by bringing people together authentically, and also super organically create an environment that is more safe for our communities,” said Julie-C, founder of artist support group Forever Safe Spaces, who serves as the project coordinator for On The Block.
Julie-C said though the pandemic brought hardship to the community, it is not the only barrier to local artists — BIPOC artists in particular are often excluded from creative spaces. The new event seeks to both uplift and create a space for them while also assisting in local economic recovery after the devastation of COVID-19. Continue reading
The Filthy FemCorps are scheduled to march through on Sunday (Image: Intiman Theatre)
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Fortunately, with a gush of wet weather finally hitting Seattle after an unusually dry late summer, Intiman Theatre’s weekend-long Homecoming Performing Arts Festival is also ready to go on rain or shine:
Intiman Theatre is proud to invite you to join in and celebrate the return of the live arts in a safe, outdoor setting! On the final weekend of summer, Harvard Ave. will transform into the HOMECOMING Performing Arts Festival, featuring vendors, food trucks, artist installations, a beer garden presented with Life on Mars, and over 100 artists performing on the mainstage. Performances will include children’s programming from South End Stories, live bands from Café Racer, dance from Velocity, stand up comedy curated by Emmett Montgomery, drag, burlesque, DJ sets, LGBTQ+ entertainment from BeautyBoiz, and much more.
The ticketed event will celebrate the theater group’s new partnership and programs at Seattle Central. Continue reading
You’ll want to wear a mask — or a full fursuit — at PrideFest
Seattle’s 2021 Pride wasn’t canceled but a lot of the fun was put on hold. Organizers hope to rise above the challenges of the COVID pandemic with a two day street festival and LGBTQIA celebration this Labor Day weekend on Broadway.
PrideFest Capitol Hill will turn Broadway from John to Roy into an outdoor festival space Saturday and Sunday with speakers, music, and performances, plus specials from local businesses, food trucks, and beer gardens. The event will be free and it will echo with the realities of this second summer of pandemic — you’ll need proof of vaccination to get into a PrideFest beer garden just like at most of the neighborhood’s nightlife venues, clubs, bars, and restaurants.
It comes amid a return of indoor masking requirements after a surge in transmission rates driven especially by the delta variant’s spread among the unvaccinated. The festival also comes as part of a slate of large events moving forwards as officials and organizers have decided to soldier on with plans.
“There were a number of factors that came into play when deciding whether to hold a festival this year,” PrideFest producer and Broadway BIA director Egan Orion said in an announcement about the festival. “LGBTQIA+ people—especially younger people—are more likely to have spent the pandemic in lockdown with families that either don’t know who they are or don’t accept them because they’re queer or trans. Pride is for some the one weekend every year when people can truly be themselves. We believe we can keep each other safe through vaccines and masking, but the mental health side of things is something we need to address too, which was a driving consideration for us in making an in-person PrideFest happen this year.” Continue reading
The Capitol Hill Block Party was postponed again in 2021 but tiny Magma Fest is ready to rock the neighborhood with a one-day event in Cal Anderson Park this Saturday:
MAGMA FEST IS BACK!!! Hollow Earth Radio’s much beloved music festival returns as a free, one-day extravaganza at Cal Anderson Park on Saturday, August 28 from 2 – 7 PM. This mini-Magma Fest features live performances by amazing local bands Versing, somesurprises, and Coral Grief, followed by sets by DJs Razberry Beretta and Dos Leches. Mask up and spend the day at the park with us, check out some great music, and grab some brand new Hollow Earth Radio swag.
MAGMA FEST 2021
SATURDAY, AUGUST 28
CAL ANDERSON PARK
FREE
ALL AGES
MASKS ENCOURAGED
CHS reported here in 2015 on the formation of the volunteer-run Hollow Earth and Magma Fest. Saturday’s mini-festival marks a return of the event hosted by Central District-headquartered Hollow Earth Radio after a pandemic cancellation in 2020. It will also mark the first return to the stage for many of the performers. The band hasn’t played a show in 18 months, according to Versing social media post.
Magma Fest 2021 will be one of the larger events in ongoing efforts to bring programming to the park after months of tumult from the CHOP protests and the COVID-19 crisis. Organizers are requesting that attendees wear face masks to help keep the event as safe as possible.
Meanwhile, producers of the Capitol Hill Block Party were forced to again cancel the July event due to the pandemic but are focusing their 2021 efforts on a new festival off the Hill. Slated for Labor Day weekend, Block Party producers say they hope the Pike/Pine-flavored Day In Day Out festival will become an annual event on Seattle Center’s Fisher Green Pavilion.
Labor Day weekend will also bring a delayed Capitol Hill celebration of Pride. PrideFest, the 501(c)3 behind Seattle’s Pride festivals, announced PrideFest Capitol Hill will take place September 4th and 5th on Broadway from John to Roy.
Magma Fest 2021 takes place Saturday, August 28th from 2 to 7 PM in Cal Anderson Park.
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Aminé at Capitol Hill Block Party on July 21, 2019 (Image: CHBP/Joshua Lewis)
Capitol Hill’s live music scene is primed to take over the city but the Pike/Pine producers behind it say a new Labor Day weekend music festival at Seattle Center won’t replace the city’s Bumbershoot festival and does not mark the end of Capitol Hill Block Party.
The new Day In Day Out festival is planned for Saturday and Sunday, September 4th and 5th, at the Fisher Green Pavilion and will bring together a CHBP-worthy mix of high buzz acts and local up and comers including Chvrches, Kaytranada, Aminé, Big Wild, STFKR, Parisalexa, and Chong the Nomad in a ticketed event featuring “an all-age viewing lawn, a 21+ VIP lounge deck, a spacious indoor-outdoor beer garden, some of the city’s most hype-worthy food trucks and more.”
Producers say Day In Day Out will be “the first Seattle music festival of its kind in the last two years.”
The major new music event is produced by Daydream State, the company formed by Jason Lajeunesse behind Pike/Pine institutions including the Neumos and Barboza family, Lost Lake Cafe, the Comet, and Big Mario’s.
“After an incredibly difficult year for artists, fans and our local creative community, we’re excited to celebrate the return of live music by providing a new platform to revive the festival scene in Seattle,” Lajeunesse says in Wednesday morning’s announcement of the festival.
The neighborhood’s live music scene roared back to life last week but the annual three-day Capitol Hill Block Party music festival usually held at the end of July won’t be part of the 2021 opening. Continue reading
The F*ck F*scism short film collection is part of this year’s Translations festival (Image: F*ck F*scism)
With plans coming together for a safe, in-person Pride celebration on Capitol Hill later this summer, another neighborhood celebration of LGBTQ+ culture will mark its second year as a virtual event.
Hopefully by 2022, we can gather in theaters again but the 2021 edition of the Translations: Seattle Transgender Film Festival from Capitol Hill cinema nonprofit Three Dollar Bill will begin Thursday on phones, laptops, and home theaters near you: Continue reading
If You Want To See Something Look At Something Else by Geoffrey Farmer
With Saturday’s Volunteer Park Pride Festival again bringing the celebration of queer love and civil rights to the northern Capitol Hill green space, two Seattle arts groups are planning a new Pride event for the historic Capitol Hill park.
Hugo House and Western Bridge announced this week they will host a poetry festival celebrating Beat poet and LGBTQ icon Allen Ginsberg later this month in Volunteer Park. The festival will include local and visiting poets, writers, and artists, and a photographic installation by Canadian artist Geoffrey Farmer titled If You Want To See Something Look at Something Else, displaying images of Ginsberg.
Tree Swenson, executive director of Hugo House, believes the festival captures how Ginsberg’s advocacy for the LGBTQ community remains prevalent in 2019 through exhibitions of art, photography, spoken word.
“Ginsberg’s politics along with his loving kindness allowed him to advocate for acceptance in many different ways. He led the way to showing how make acceptance a reality, which is still important in 2019, given the threats we’re facing echo some of the threats his book Howl faced in the late 1950s.” Swenson said.
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/ginsberg-poetry-festival-and-art-installation-if-you-want-to-see-something-look-at-something-else/
