What do 40 Northwest bands and 10 Seattle readers have in common? Well, they'll all be taking part in the inaugural BIGass BOOMBOX Festival in Seattle, January 3rd and 4th!
Indeed, bands like The Hoot Hoots, Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount, The Jesus Rehab, XVIII Eyes, Tangerine, Friends and Family, The Great Um, Abraham and Robb Benson and the Shelk will be sharing three stages - The Crocodile main stage, The Croc's back bar and The Rendezvous' Jewel Box - over the course of two nights, playing the free, all-ages event. Additionally, from 7PM-8:30PM, there will be readers opening each night with poetry and essays about Seattle music - from Kurt Cobain to Elvis.
The festival is being organized by The Hoot Hoots, who played BIGass Boombox last year in Portland, where the series originated several years ago.
“Our experience playing the BIGass Boombox in Portland last year inspired us to do it in Seattle,” says Hoot Hoots lead singer Adam Prairie. “We played to a packed house who were all there just for the love of music. Our keyboardist Christina also stage-dived for the first time!”
"The production of the festival has been a group effort," notes Prairie. "Just as it was in Portland, where hundreds and hundreds of people attended last year. We and many friends of ours have volunteered tons of time to set this up because there’s so much great music in Seattle that’s just needs a little help to find an audience. It’s insane how much people have supported us in our efforts to make this happen."
The festival, which has received sponsorship from Trading Musician, The Stranger, Local 360 and Equal Exchange Coffee, will also include some of Seattle's best writers, including Sarah Galvin, Maged Zaher and Jane Wong. Each night, four writers will take the stage at the Rendezvous' Grotto Theater to read poetry, with a fifth each night reading an essay about music in Seattle. The readings are being put on by Poetry Northwest and The Monarch Review.
“Many of the Boombox readers have appeared in the pages of Poetry Northwest, which is a point of pleasure and pride,” says PoNW Managing Editor Matt Kelsey. “I know these to be daring poets who are earnest in their play. Their work is spirited–amped, you might say–and their poems reverberate so clearly and consistently that they are indeed capable of opening for live musicians – that’s no small task."
For more information on the Seattle festival, click here.
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