Recent Stories with tag one reel

June is here (sorta, if you don't look outside), and with that comes the first wave of artists tapped for this year's Bumbershoot.  It's the festival's 40th anniversary, so that means trotting out musicians both old and new, which in this case means Bob Dylan and Hole. Dare we dream of a croaky-voiced Courtney Love-Bob Dylan trainwreck duet?

Single-day tickets are available online as of today, and via Ticketmaster this Friday. Just a reminder on how the tickets are different this year: 

The Bumbershoot Standard Ticket ($40 advance/$50 gate) includes guaranteed Mainstage admission, as well as first-come, first-served access to all other Festival venues. The Bumbershoot Economy Ticket ($22 advance/$30 gate) gives ticketholders first-come, first-served access to everything at Bumbershoot except the Mainstage performances in Memorial Stadium. Economy Ticket holders may be able to purchase Mainstage Upgrade Tickets on-site for $30, if space in the Mainstage is still available day-of-show.

There's one more Mainstage act to be announced (mayhaps Soundgarden?), along with the literary, comedy, performing arts, visual arts, film and theater artists, and whatever other music groups get added to the bill. Check out the lineup by day, and the full list is after the jump....

(more)

The March 6, 2010, fireworks downtown, thanks to Lux_Tyro

With all due respect to Kara Ceriello, president of the Wallingford Chamber of Commerce, we can do without fireworks this year. Event producers One Reel, in their letter announcing the fireworks cancellation, says they were unable to secure corporate sponsorship of the event, a $500,000 fee.

You have to ask, especially now, what else our very limited supply of corporations who can afford a $500,000 gift might fund instead of fireworks? Maybe they could keep five vital non-profits open this year with $100,000 grants.

I know that spending "fun" money on serious things makes some people crazy. But our economic situation is very serious for thousands upon thousands of Seattle residents, and we seem to have lost touch with the idea of even temporary community sacrifice.

Let's not pretend we're experiencing some sort of fireworks deficit in the first place. There were fireworks downtown this March. We blew up the Space Needle for New Year's.

Fireworks on the Fourth has, in becoming an "annual tradition," become a stand-in for a creative community response to the holiday. It's the package we buy because who has time and there it is on the shelf, just like last year. We know the Fourth happened because we saw the fireworks on TV.

What would a real "Family Fourth" look like? Would it happen over several days, rather than a half-hour one evening? I feel like we can do better if we take the opportunity the recession is handing us to figure out what, exactly, we're celebrating. One Reel has hopes to bring back the fireworks next year. But this year, if we get the chance to plan our own party, what could we do instead?