A Day in the Life of Bumbershoot 2024 [REVIEW]

It has been ten years since I last went to the Bumbershoot Festival.

I tried to explain to some friends of mine and their teenagers what it is like, over a tasty lunch at BJ's in Redmond. The family recently moved to Washington State a couple of years ago and none of them had ever heard of Bumbershoot before.

"It's like Lollapalooza, mixed with a family-friendly Coachella, mixed with eclectic art, food, and live music-- but set in the heart of downtown Seattle," I tried to explain.

Bumbershoot has the quintessential Pacific Northwest vibe that I've come to love as though I was born here in Washington (I'm originally from Nashville, Tennessee).

You don't know what to expect except that it will be fun, fresh, unique, stylish, and refreshing.

I came for the music and stayed for the art and the people watching!

MY TEN-YEAR JOURNEY BACK TO BUMBERSHOOT

When my daughter Willow was 3, I remember taking her to Bumbershoot. I had her in a stroller, so she had it easy, whenever she got tired, she just crawled back into the stroller. We enjoyed sitting on the lawn and listening to the live bands play.

Fast-forward ten years later, she's a feisty little teenager who gets bored with everything I suggest. I was shocked when she said she would go with me to Bumbershoot!

We left town early Sunday morning to head to Seattle. The weather was perfect, the traffic was smooth, and we found a great place to park downtown. It was like a dream!

After ten minutes of walking toward the monorail, I realized that I had forgotten which parking garage we were at, so we had to trek back. Thankfully, Willow was paying attention; she led us back to where we had parked.

We got a little bit lost trying to find the entrance gate, but everyone was so nice to us and led us to the right gate.

Whoever said there's a "Seattle Freeze" wasn't telling the truth! The only "freeze" we ran into was the slight brain freeze Willow got from drinking her ice cream treat too fast. (She didn't want me taking her picture!)

Experiencing Bumbershoot with a teen means having money for Root Beer Floats from the Shug's ice cream carts. Willow ended up getting two of them before the day was out.

It also means they probably don't want to take selfies with their parents!

One thing I didn't expect Willow to enjoy was one of the fashion shows they had at Bumbershoot. The crowd went wild for every look that came down the runway. It was so cool to see all the smiles and hearing the applause. Even I jumped in to "whoop!" and holler.

Thank goodness there was a family-friendly beverage tent nearby in the "Fashion District", where dozens of designers were selling their newest pieces, and vintage stores had items for purchase. One booth even had an odd-looking golden bike.

I really enjoyed this Blackberry Bramble cocktail (even if it was $18!).

Other highlights that Willow loved was watching other kids running through the fountain. She saw one little girl sitting nearby reading.

"Look, Mom! She's reading a book. I have one in my backpack, too," she exclaimed. The next thing I know, Willow had pulled out her "Gravity Falls" book about Bill Cipher and sat down and started reading it.

Another cool thing we never expected to see happen at Bumbershoot was this impromptu Lo Rider car show!

I think Willow was impressed with the Bumbershoot festival because before we left, she goes, "Mom, I really had a fun day today."

When I tell you how much I wanted to break down and cry tears of joy!😍 We are definitely going to come back again next year (and I promise not to make her do any more selfies with me unless she actually wants to)!

AND NOW, FOR A LITTLE "FOMO" FOR YOU. THIS GALLERY OF BUMBERSHOOT 2024 IS AMAZING. SEE WHAT YOU MISSED!