You are correct, Sasquatch is in May over the Memorial Day weekend, but there's already news spilling out of the official site. As if we weren't all excited enough to get the winter behind us, come out of hibernation, and bask in the sunshine; Sasquatch! has officially announced their first headlining band and the extension of their festival out to 4 days (May 27th - 30th). Since you're chomping at the bit to hear (if the image didn't already tip you off), the first headliner announced is the Foo Fighters. Seriously, if that's just the first band to be announced, can you imagine how epic the entire weekend will be? We are nearly bursting at the seams to know what the rest of the lineup has in store. more ›

It was the best of times, it was the hottest of times. more ›

Let’s hope you’re feeling decisive because we’ve got quite a weekend coming up. With over 60 bands set to take four stages over the next three days, music fans who will be in the city this weekend will be faced with some of the toughest decisions of the year. more ›

ONE WORLD, TWELVE FINALISTS: Central Cinema will be featuring some of the twelve best short films submitted to the 2009 Manhattan Shorts Festival tonight--the first night of the three-day event. Manhattan's goal is to show the finalists in venues on every continent, uniting audiences around the world, for this one week only. We must admit that they have a point when they ask, "For up-and-coming filmmakers, what greater test for your film is there than to be judged in cinemas by a global audience?" So go join in on the judging fun, and let your inner-critic shine. more ›

Yes, another Bumbershoot artist announcement, but this time around it's for the festival's literary program. This year's lineup is really all over the place, with everyone from director Melvin Van Peebles to The Outsiders author S.E. Hinton to David Cross (and his girlfriend) debuting his first book to the guy behind Stuff White People Like. But we're probably most excited for a panel involving three of the writers for Lost (no J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, or Smoke Monster, sorry) and a hopefully not-too-cringeworthy Q&A. Full lineup after the jump. more ›

LOSE YOUR AIR VIRGINITY: A first for Seattle, tonight you can get pointers (or even perform) at the Air Sex Championships. Yes, you read that correctly. Think Air Guitar sans the guitar solo, but instead swapping it with two minutes of sexy, saucy, or pure naaasty love-making moves with an imaginary sex partner. All to love-makin' tunes sure to put the audience at El Corazon in the mood. And just so you don't start flashing dollar bills, there is no nakedness at this dry humping festival, however creative costumes are encouraged. more ›

While supplies last, a three-day pass to next year's Bumbershoot is just $60. The only catch is that you gotta be a BumberFan, but that process is relatively simple. Meanwhile, SIFF has passes and ticket packages for next year's film festival on sale now through January 15th. And if you're looking for a fest a little further afield, specially-priced tickets to next year's Bonnaroo just went on pre-sale today. more ›

Dine-Arounds are popular in November; here's one more: the 16th annual Beaujolais Nouveau festival, sponsored by Seattle's French-American Chamber of Commerce. Used to be, the FACC counted on Beaujolais to raise a ton of cash, so they gussied up what's traditionally an informal country fair, turning it into a black tie event in a glittering hotel ballroom. more ›

We'll take it for granted that you will get pleasantly buzzed on nutritious, delicious microbrews at this year's Fremont OktoberFest, which might as well be called BeerFest. Someone else will have to fill you in about all the different kinds of beer this weekend (we heard there would be something like thirty breweries serving up!) at another time, though, because we would prefer to discuss the excellent local music offerings at this event. Seattle's ramping up for fall, which will come sooner rather than later; this is the perfect time to find a couple new local bands to love this winter. more ›

At least that's part of the lesson we learned from reading the Seattle Times feature news story on how corrections officers and cops troll Seattle festivals like The Bite and Seafair for lapsed felons and folks with outstanding warrants. The other thing we got from reading the story was never wanting to go to another free festival again. You only have to read the first sentence of the story to be convinced, but we assure you the whole thing is filled with reasons not to attend.... The opener: more ›

MSN has listed 15 of the best cities and festivals for music lovers, citing Bumbershoot as the reason they clocked Seattle in at the number two spot. more ›

OPERATION BRIGHT PINK FLAMINGO: If you were at Myrtle Edwards Park last weekend, you may have noticed a city-approved flock of plastic flamingos hanging out on the lawns. Lest you prematurely begin the spiral into "WTF, can't we just have normal public art," let us inform you that the flamingos were only visiting to remind everyone that real Chilean flamingos are available as of tomorrow to gawk at over in the Woodland Park Zoo. There will be free mini-cupcakes, music, and stilt-walking at the Zoo to mark the opening of the summer exhibit. more ›

Are you looking for exciting theatre outside the Seattle city limits? If you are interested in the artistic works of people from all around the Northwest, you can still check out the four remaining shows of the Northwest Playwrights Alliance (NPA) Festival of Northwest Plays in Tacoma. The festival will showcase three new full-length plays and several 10 minute plays with themes varying from disaster survivors to “tongue-in-cheek potty humor.” more ›

So, you think you have been to a beer festival before? Maybe you went to Fremont Oktoberfest , or maybe you even went to the Seattle International Beer Fest this summer. If you really want to go to a beer festival, get yourself to Denver in 10 days. more ›

Our single favorite taste characteristic in a beer is possibly smoke.....or hops.....or coffee. Well, for today it is smoke. more ›

"You're lucky to have Bumbershoot," remarked comedian Michael Ian Black the other night. "There are a lot of music festivals, but this is an arts and music festival. You get both." He paused. "You get both." Everybody laughed. Why? That is one thing we did not learn at Bumbershoot. more ›

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. more ›

Kevin Wood and his brother Andrew formed Malfunkshun, one of grunge's true ancestors, in 1980. The band (Kevin’s on the left in this 1983 photo) contributed two tracks to the legendary Deep Six album in 1986, then fizzled soon after. Andy moved on to the almost-famous Mother Love Bone, but became a statistic in 1990. For years, Kevin played in various bands with other guys who'd nearly become well known. more ›

Friday night, as planned, we drove up to Bellingham for the 6th Annual Subdued Stringband Jamboree--something we've never experienced before, and about which we were somewhat excited. Having spent last weekend revelling in the Americana down in Portland, maybe our expectations were a little high. more ›

We lifted this sound recording of a weird and prolific screamer at Belmont and Denny from the Seattle LiveJournal community. more ›

Oh Seattle, you make us feel so . more ›

How easy it is to poke mean-spirited fun at Silverman Festivals, aka Bite of Seattle. The family-owned commercial enterprise, enabled by the City of Seattle in the guise of a community festival, symbolizes so much of what's wrong with America today: greed, exploitation, overweening appetite and tons of just plain crappy food. A cheap and easy target for the smug and self-satisfied. (For one such potshot, see Cornichon's "Blah of Seattle" post a year ago.) more ›

Jesus, this is embarrassing. Bastille Day celebrates the liberation of a particularly pungent batch of cheese from the dungeons of the old prison in 1789 (along with seven prisoners) on the 14th of July (le Quatorze). Except here -- where as usual we're a day late and a euro short -- the Seattle Bastille Day festivities are being held on Sunday the 15th at the Seattle Center. What fun is that? The ideal would be to get loaded to the gills on Saturday and roll out for a late, late brunch on Sunday. more ›

The goal is to write, shoot, edit and otherwise produce a short film in 48 hours or less. Beyond lining up a crew, equipment and possibly a cast and locations, you are forbidden from preparing in any other way. Pre-planning is next to impossible anyway because you don't know what genre you're preparing for until the project begins. Teams choose a genre out of a hat and are given three story elements - a character, a line of dialogue and a prop - with which to write their script. All the elements must exist in the final movie and it must be turned in on time to be considered for any awards. We're competing against 40 other teams this year, which is amazing considering last year we barely broke 20. more ›

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! more ›

National film festival correspondent Kyle Anderson on Seattle's other one more ›

We saw it first in this month's Seattle Sound magazine, but then we misplaced it somewhere, so we grabbed the current Stranger and -- ah, there they are: The stage times for all the performers at this weekend's Sasquatch Festival along with the inevitable, unavoidable conflicts that occur at all festivals. They did a pretty good job of staggering the times, but there are still some "What do we do?!" moments. more ›

Is working for beer really work at all? more ›

Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun 2pm // Ticketmaster $29-$49 (plus fees) more ›