bumbershoot 2011 : your guide to the northwest’s finest and more

The Northwest’s two biggest, city-based music fests happen on back to back weekends and OMN will be heading up to Bumbershoot for the 41st edition of Seattle’s longest-running music and arts festival.

Over Labor Day weekend–September 3rd through 5th–more than 120 musical acts will take stages on the Seattle Center’s grounds including Key Arena headliners like Ray LaMontagne & the Pariah Dogs, Wiz Khalifa, Broken Social Scene, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Hall & Oates. Plus twelve Portland acts will be making the drive up north including several playing the Decibel-curated electronic showcase.

And that’s just the music; there’s comedy, theater, film, dance, spoken word, visual arts, kids activities, and more (like skeeball). There’s some decent overlap between the Bumbershoot bill and MFNW, so here’s a quick rundown of who you can catch two weekends in a row if you’ve also got your MFNW wristband:

Little Dragon, The Kills, Butthole Surfers, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, YACHT, Charles Bradley, Sharon Van Etten, Thee Oh Sees, Phantogram, You Am I, DåM-FunK + Master Blazter, Emancipator, Shabazz Palaces, Tennis, Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, PS I Love You, Joe Pug, AgesandAges, Caleb Klauder Country Band, Kasey Anderson and The Honkies, Mad Rad, Natasha Kmeto, Pickwick

There are also a few notable additions to this year’s fest:

A partnership with Seattle’s premier electronic festival, the Decibel Festival, will bring a host of electronic talent to the EMP Sky Church stage over the course of three days. With live electronic performances from so many Portlanders like The Great Mundane, Natasha Kmeto, Emancipator, and Nice Nice, Seattle names like Beat Connection and Truckasauras, and national/international acts like School of Seven Bells, Tycho, Shigeto, Com Truise, and HTRK, the musicians will meld their beats and samples to the to live video accompaniment from VJs Momo the Monster, Brandy Gray, Epileptic and T.J. Davis. These Decibel-curated days will be followed by two nights of Bumbershoot After Dark with more electronic dance from six DJs and producers (like Four Tet and DåM-FunK).

Then there’s the METAL stage! On Saturday, September 3rd doom experts (since 1971) Pentagram, PDX ass kickers Red Fang, Seattle sludgers Witchburn, and North Carolina beardos Valient Thorr will take the El Corazon-curated Exhibition Hall Stage for an afternoon of wicked licks and face melting.

And lastly, there will be

a jazz showcase [curated by Matt Jorgensen] on EMP Level 3 (a brand new Bumbershoot venue), highlighting local standouts Wayne Horvitz Café Paloma Band, Thomas Marriott’s Human Spirit and the Gail Pettis Quartet.

And now, OMN is here to tell you who from the NW is hot alongside the many other acts we’re fawning over.

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Get OMN's picks here.