User:Kingleothethird/Bumbershoot

Lead-edit
Bumbershoot is produced by One Reel, a Seattle nonprofit that works to "fue[l] civic pride through signature experiences that foster growth & development of community and the arts". One Reel has produced the festival since 1980. AEG Presents, formally AEG Live, became "a producing partner" for the 2015-2019 festivals following great financial struggle of the local non-profit.

AEG Live takes over- continuing on what the page has
Whats on page: Italic = whats on the page

After several years of financial trouble, AEG Live took over as lead promoter in 2015, with One Reel providing supporting programming [14].

AEG had previously taken on a secondary production role from 2007 to 2009 during which they experienced "significant losses due to rain and the Great Recession of 2009".

Contrary to their time as secondary producers AEG would now have majority control as One Reel was no longer a "financially healthy company". Because of this struggle Chris Porter, "Bumbershoot's music booker of nearly two decades", said that "this time [One Reel] had to bow down to the way AEG wanted to do things in order to get the deal done". In other words AEG allowed kept the festival alive but would make the major decisions it didn't have the authority to do in the past.

Locals were worried that AEG stepping in would change the deep cultural significance the festival served for the city highlighting local creatives. Having experienced a similar situation in New Orleans, a Seattle local interviewed by The Seattle Times said that as soon as AEG began to produce JazzFest that the significance of the city's history and its culture fell to the background. Local artists were replaced by money making headliners.

Though there were concerns, the truth of the matter was that the local AEG team believed in Bumbershoot and Seattle. AEG "took over in 2015 after nearly a million dollars of debt threatened the festivals future". A source told Crosscut magazine that "local AEG staff thought the festival should be saved, and not because it represented a potential chance to make money".

After signing the contact with AEG, One Reel's founder Norm Langill met with Chad Queirolo and Rob Thomas of AEG's Pacific Northwest chapter. Langill reported to the Seattle Times that he had full faith in Queirolo and Thomas to take over Bumbershoot's operations.

AEG Live steps down as lead producer
In November of 2019, AEG Live announced that they decided not to continue producing Bumbershoot when their contract was up for renewal. AEG's Rob Thomas said the decision was "heartbreaking" as they initially invested in saving the music festival because they believed in it. This decision came after years of problems. Since Seattle maintains ownership of Bumbershoot, related problems arise such as unions, city overtime pay and police fees. The Seattle Center has also been under construction for the last several years which restricts the area available for festival use, most significantly, Key Arena. Industry experts have noted that "it was likely that AEG lost upwards of a million dollars each year it promoted Bumbershoot".  

In many festival-hosting cities, government funding - such as grants - has been organized as to continue the festival and maintain profits from tourism and tax gains. Bumbershoot has not experienced such economic profitability, and thus AEG chose to step down.

The Future of Bumbershoot
In the fall of 2019 it was announced that AEG Live "declined to renew its option to produce Bumbershoot in 2020" following its five year run as lead producer.

What is next for Bumbershoot may be uncertain but this year off gives the festival time to regroup and decide what the best move for One Reel, The Seattle Center and the city is. Seattle has a deep history in music being the epicenter of Grunge in the 90's as the birth place of Nirvana (band), Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. Also harboring music heroes like Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones,Heart (band), and Macklemore. Bumbershoot's struggle is not an isolated situation as several music festivals in the PNW have been cancelled in recent years. Washington's Sasquatch! Music Festival, and Upstream Music Festival, British Columbia's Pemberton Music Festival, and Portland's MusicFestNW have all been cancelled.

One Reel writes that "things may never return to what was once, but we are confident that Bumbershoot will return to entertain and amaze Seattle on Labor Day weekend, for decades to come". They explain that this break in producing the festival has allotted time for reflection on "the good, the bad, and the ugly". One Reel looks towards the future as an opportunity to "evolve into something new".

One Reel and the Seattle Center have agreed to collaborate in revamping Bumbershoot in order to bring it back to its roots and make a sustainable model for the future of the festival. Festival producers the Seattle community, and artists have all expressed the importance of Bumbershoot and its impact on the city. Chris Cornell, former lead singer of Soundgarden and Seattle native has said that playing Bumbershoot was "a career highlight" A bold statement from one of the founders of the Seattle Grunge movement.

''2020 cancelled all live concerts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Golden Anniversary was deferred to 2021.''

Extra Notes and Quotes I might refer back to later

 * 1) "But what hasn’t been as noted in social media was that AEG also absorbed much of Bumbershoot’s debt, and had really stepped in, one source said, only because local AEG staff thought the festival should be saved, and not because it represented a potential chance to make money".
 * 2) Seattle Center construction caused an impact continue to research