Pumping some new life into the Bumbershoot festival should be incentive for fixing the outmoded Seattle Center, the main park in the middle of the city.
Yes, some of this year’s shows were great. On Saturday I loved The Gourds at Mural Amphitheater (“Starbucks Stage”) and The Moth at Bagley Wright Theater. But The Shins’ show suffered from awful sound in Memorial Stadium — not to mention a lack of drinking water and super-strict airport-style crowd control.
At risk of sounding like a geezer, I have to say it used to be better. For $5 you could spend the day chancing across new music and art, plus maybe catch a great headliner. I’ll always remember hearing Miles Davis at the old Opera House in 1987.
This year the walk-up tickets were $35, which kept the crowds in check. While fighting the economics of the music business is probably a lost cause, we can rejuvenate the place by remodeling the Seattle Center. (There’s a simple summary of the options on this story.)
What can be done? Replace Memorial Stadium with a real amphitheater, replace the Fun Forest with usable green space, retool Key Arena and modernize the Center House. But don’t stop there. Let’s make the place accessible by running the new streetcar from South Lake Union past the Seattle Center to the existing line on the waterfront.
Extra open space, some better facilities and more efficient access would go a long way toward restoring the Seattle Center and Bumbershoot. That might even make them better than ever.
Comments
6 responses to “How to fix Seattle Center (and help Bumbershoot)”
Great idea on replacing the “Fun Forest” with usable green space. From 11am to 5pm the Fun Forest traumatizes children and adults alike. At night it’s just dead space. And where is the “Forest” anyway…
Great idea on replacing the “Fun Forest” with usable green space. From 11am to 5pm the Fun Forest traumatizes children and adults alike. At night it’s just dead space. And where is the “Forest” anyway…
Great idea on replacing the “Fun Forest” with usable green space. From 11am to 5pm the Fun Forest traumatizes children and adults alike. At night it’s just dead space. And where is the “Forest” anyway…
On normal days, more green space is what’s missing at Seattle Center. That would make festivals better too. There’s so much potential in that place.
On normal days, more green space is what’s missing at Seattle Center. That would make festivals better too. There’s so much potential in that place.
On normal days, more green space is what’s missing at Seattle Center. That would make festivals better too. There’s so much potential in that place.