Cancer Rising at the Georgetown Music Festival by Abbey at SoundontheSound. 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......

Bite of Seattle Crowd (i.e. possible felons) by Jonathan Hanlon 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......

The Shins at last year's Bumbershoot, courtesy of Seattlest Flickr user Andrew G. Davis 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. We come in behind only Memphis, ahead of Chicago, Tokyo, London, Vienna, and Los Angeles. New York City was number 9, Nashville made the cut at number 12, and New Orleans—arguably the best place......

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.......

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.” Proceeds from the festival......

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. The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is every beer lovers dream. 408 breweries. 1,884 beers. One huge convention center. 3 straight days of goodness. Can it......

Our single favorite taste characteristic in a beer is possibly smoke.....or hops.....or coffee. Well, for today it is smoke. For those of you that stick to macro beers and the like, this may sound a little odd. But, to those of you who enjoy craft beer and wine, this flavor profile should not be surprising. Smoke flavor can get into beer from essentially two methods: using malt that was roasted over an open fire, or......

"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. We did learn that while, really, all carnivals are human-powered, some are more human-powered than others. Cyclecide's assortment of pedal-powered rides had lines all day, and......

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. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

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. Then in 2006, Kevin......

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. To be fair, the Jamboree itself wasn't bad. By the time we cut through the traffic and filled our bellies, we managed to see three artists, and two of......

We lifted this sound recording of a weird and prolific screamer at Belmont and Denny from the Seattle LiveJournal community. Okay, this is weird, but is there anyone here who lives around the Belmont/Denny section of Capitol Hill (near Half Price Books) and knows anything about the woman who screams at the top of her lungs almost all day long? This has been going on for about a month or more. It doesn't happen every......

Oh Seattle, you make us feel so old. It was maybe a year ago and some, while we were wallowing in the mud at Sasquatch, clutching our $8 cans of Budweiser, when we finally said to ourselves, "You know what? Outdoor festivals suck." And then we recoiled in horror. Hating festivals is the very definition of getting old, isn't it? Really. There's an accepted narrative explanation of this phenomenon at pseudo-hipster bastions like The......

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.)......

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......

If you see several weary-looking film crews around town this weekend, you're probably noticing some of the participants in the Seattle version of the 48 Hour Film Project. On the eve of the big event, Seattlest talked with Dom Zook, a producer for one of the local teams. Dom's team won the Best in City prize two years ago for "Hook Her" (pictured above); this is his third team participating. So, what's involved in......

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! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

National film festival correspondent Kyle Anderson on Seattle's other one While May 24th is the debut of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), the lesser known, 3rd annual Seattle True Independent Film Festival (STIFF) also kicks off its performance schedule on the same date. The latter appears to be the yin to the former’s yang – one is slang for Syphilis and the other is a rock-hard…whatever. Although it has been documented that Seattleites don’t......

"Let the Festivals Begin!" by Seattle Daily Photo from the Seattlest Flickr group. Thanks for sharing!......

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. We know we're going......

Is working for beer really work at all? The Seattle International Beerfest (SIB) will take place again this year at Seattle Center from June 29 to July 1. You will have to act soon though if you would like to work as a volunteer and earn yourself some beer. You can earn up to 43 beer tickets by working shifts pouring beer to the masses. SIB has the best selection of Seattle's beer festivals.......

Cirque Dreams @ The Moore Theatre Sat 2pm & 8pm, Sun 2pm // Ticketmaster $29-$49 (plus fees) Who doesn't love a circus? Maybe dead people. They might not like the hustle and bustle. The guy next to us was in his forties, in a suit, and kept pointing out things to his date, exclaiming, "Oh, no way!" Most of the rest of the audience was pre-teen or just-teen. We developed a strange craving for......

Flickr photo by Anziano311 For the last few years Austin’s SXSW Music festival has brought Seattle their best European (mostly U.K.) bands; many of them making their first appearance here before heading back across the pond or whisking away to the many summer music festivals around the country. Seattle seems like a good enough launch pad though, and we’ve got a few beauties lined up. On Monday, May 5th two of the biggest bands......

Times are good for folks with new Italian restaurants (Sorrentino, Tavolata, Barolo, La Spiga, Bèato): lively, fiercely independent, stamped with the vibrant personalities of their owners. And then there's the local outpost of Il Fornaio at Pacific Place, a chain that's been around for years, putting its own stamp on regional Italian cuisine with a monthly "culinary festivals." The fornaio is Italy's baker, and crusty, fresh-baked bread is indeed one of the restaurant's signatures. (The......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

MUSIC: Tim O'Brien, Jerry Douglas, Chris Thile & How to Grow a Band, Darrel Scott Band, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Uncle Earl, and many more at Wintergrass. Wintergrass is one of the biggest bluegrass festivals in the country, and this is one of the best line-ups they've had in some time. It's worth it to go see all the bands, or just to hang out in the lobby and jam out all weekend for free.......

We used to be with the rest of our snobby generation: thinking bluegrass festivals were for our grandparents, sitting on their lawn chairs with their farmer tans blaring and their bad old-people dancing. But no more, nosirree. Not when there are hotties like the Infamous Stringdusters, the Greencards, and Chris Thile pouring into Tacoma, of all godforsaken places, this weekend for Wintergrass Who else is coming? Tim O'Brien—probably one of the most highly respected......

Wednesday, February 21 >>> The Thermals at Chop Suey. The Thermals are back in town to rock out for the cause of saving all ages shows. With Helvetia, Speaker Speaker. * mp3: How We Know 8:00 pm doors // $10 adv. // All ages >>> The Budos Band at Neumo's. James Brown may be beating women in heaven, but on Earth we've still got the Budos Band, a ten-piece of twentysomethings who bring sweet......

Last year's Sasquatch line up was good, but not good enough to get us to spend three days at the Gorge. We still prefer the festival in its one-day, all-in-one-fell-swoop form, but with the lineup that's been announced for this year's two-day fest, we may just have to make the trip. Out of the two days, it was Saturday that really made us coo. Bjork *and* Arcade Fire? Consider us sold. There are still......

In case local breweries need more cheap advertising, Olympia’s got them covered. Lawmakers recently created a "state-sanctioned commission to better market [Washington-brewed] ales to consumers." Naturally, brewers are loving it. And so should fans of Washington beer. Because not only is the commission going to promote this alcoholic nectar, specific sections of the Revised Code of Washington require that: The commission shall … develop and submit to the director for approval any plans, programs,......