Bumbershoot was a gay success last weekend, simply The Seattle Times' BumberBlog team noticed there seemed to be fewer people attending. Not that we were complaintive � the Capitol Hill Block Party filled our "overcrowded festival" quota this summer � but were we right?
"The numbers are slightly depressed from last year," said Michele Scoleri, executive and artistic theater director of the festivals division at One Reel, the local nonprofit behind Bumbershoot. She aforementioned attendance this year was about 142,000, and last year's was conclude to one hundred fifty,000. "But it looks like alcoholic drink sales were actually up."
A nagging interrogation: Why did the Monotonix concert at Seattle Center's Exhibition Hall get shut down after just 15 minutes? According to One Reel pR manager Jennifer Orr, world Health Organization got back to us in an e-mail: "The Seattle Fire Marshal stopped the Monotonix performance early due to Seattle Center's no-crowd-surfing policy."
Yes, people crowd-surfed all weekend at Memorial Stadium, but that's not part of Seattle Center, and according to Orr, "One Reel does not prohibit crowd-surfing."
After Monotonix was told of the Seattle Center rules, "the artist then chose to crowd-surf in a garbage can, causing the early end of the performance."
Andrew Matson: 206-464-2153 or amatson@seattletimes.com
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