Festival season is upon us. Ticket fees have been processed, the wristband printers are working overtime and our hydration packs are, um, packed.
The only thing left is to cram-listen to every artist on the promo posters in anticipation for the music weekend marathons that fill the summer calendar and ensure that I will never go camping again. (Keep my weary corpse in your thoughts while roasting s’mores over a crackling campfire.)
But in all seriousness, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about this summer’s festival itinerary, from this weekend’s Day In Day Out through Seattle signature Bumbershoot, now in its second year under new leadership. As always, local festivals offer ample opportunities to see music stars of today and tomorrow, whether they hail from Seattle or halfway across the globe. Here are a few standouts, at various stages in their careers, to watch this summer.
Suki Waterhouse — Day In Day Out
It’s almost a disservice to mention the celebrity stuff in the same breath as Suki Waterhouse’s musical talents. But the “Model, Actress, Whatever,” reportedly engaged to the hot vampire from “Twilight,” has also been one of Sub Pop’s top signings of the past few years. Waterhouse’s music career has been sizzling since inking with the hometown label and releasing her debut album, “I Can’t Let Go,” in 2022. Now, the British singer-songwriter, who takes the DIDO stage Saturday night, is gearing up to release her most ambitious project to date — an 18-track “double album” titled “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin.” Due Sept. 13, Waterhouse’s savory sophomore album stretches from dreamy indie rock to gloomy balladry and cinematic folk-pop with a little Lana Del Rey noir.
July 12-14; Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St., Seattle; tickets start at $130 single-day, $225 two-day passes and $275 three-day passes; dayindayoutfest.com
Chappell Roan — Capitol Hill Block Party
Chappell Roan is already the talk of festival season, and I don’t just mean in Seattle. The prescient Block Party crew scored big time in booking one of the breakout pop stars of the year, who reportedly dazzled at Coachella and New York’s Governors Ball. The 26-year-old has been releasing music since 2017, but hit another level with her first full-length album last fall. “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” sets unapologetically queer lyrics to infectious ‘80s synth-pop that’s at its sparkliest on the hit single “HOT TO GO!” With her even bigger smash “Good Luck, Babe!,” a buzzy NPR Tiny Desk performance and opening dates with Olivia Rodrigo (the two share a producer), Roan’s star grew even bigger this spring. While Roan, who takes Block Party’s main stage Friday, technically isn’t a CHBP headliner, she’s the most anticipated artist to grace the festival since Lizzo’s headlining turn in 2019 at the height of her ascent.
July 19-21; Pike-Pine corridor; tickets start at $115 single–day, $189 two-day and $275 three-day passes; capitolhillblockparty.com
Day Soul Exquisite — Timber! Outdoor Music Festival
These jazzy neo-soulsters are some of the brightest newcomers to the Seattle music scene, releasing their first “Sanguine & Cardamom” EP in January. Day Soul Exquisite’s July 27 late set at the Carnation festival’s Campfire Stage is a fitting way to wind down this intimate, community-driven festival at Tolt-MacDonald Park & Campground.
July 25-27; Tolt-MacDonald Park & Campground, 31020 N.E. 40th St., Carnation; $65-$95 single-day ticket, $186 weekend pass, kids 12 and younger free with add-on ticket, $60 camping, $25 weekend parking; summer.timbermusicfest.com
Shallipopi — BLASTFEST
In impeccably cool fashion, BLASTFEST broke ground as the region’s only major Afrobeats festival with its inaugural 2023 edition, making its distinct mark on Seattle’s indie-centric festival landscape. Now in year two, organizers of the single-day fest at Seattle Center landed one of the genre’s titans in headliner Davido, who’s helped popularize the sound-blending West African pop music and American hip-hop over the past decade. But don’t sleep on breakout Nigerian singer/rapper Shallipopi, who unleashed his sophomore album “Shakespopi” this spring.
July 27; Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St., Seattle; tickets start at $95; blastmusicfest.com
Zach Top — Watershed
Zach Top’s sophomore album may be titled “Cold Beer & Country Music,” but don’t mistake the Sunnyside-raised musician for just another good-time country radio bro. Raised on a Yakima County ranch, the 25-year-old country singer has a purehearted traditionalist streak predating his move to Nashville, Tenn. Top got his musical start as a 7-year-old in his sibling bluegrass band, Top String (nice). After going solo with his own bluegrass album in 2022, Top pivoted to a throwback country sound on this year’s new album, indebted to neotraditional greats of the ‘80s and ‘90s like Randy Travis and George Strait. Damn right, there’s a fiddle in this bona fide country man’s band, as Top gets an early afternoon homecoming Aug. 2 at Washington’s premier country festival.
Aug. 2-4; Gorge Amphitheatre, 754 Silica Road N.W., Quincy; three-day tickets start at $295, camping starts at $225; watershedfest.com
Sam Barber — THING
Fresh off a sold-out Tractor Tavern date in May, Sam Barber returns for an Aug. 11 slot at THING, Seattle Theatre Group’s family friendly festival, which begins a new chapter moving to Remlinger Farms this summer. Barber, a major label-backed singer-songwriter, first made a splash with 2022’s full-throated single “Straight and Narrow,” an acoustic growler that’s since gone platinum, racking up nearly 185 million Spotify streams. Last fall, the 21-year-old songsmith released his debut “Million Eyes” EP, flashing a tuneful grit like a less rough-and-tumble Zach Bryan.
Aug. 9-11; Remlinger Farms, 32610 N.E. 32nd St., Carnation; tickets start at $129.50 single-day pass, $220 two-day pass, $349.50 three-day pass, kids 12 and younger free; thingnw.org
Angélica Garcia — Bumbershoot
This experimental pop auteur has come a long way since debuting in 2016 with a collection of alt-folk/blues-rocky tunes in 2016, with each step in her evolution met with increasing critical praise. This year’s dreamlike “Gemelo,” her first album sung almost entirely in Spanish, is a new high-water mark that pivots to ethereal electronic pop while exploring her duality as a Salvadoran-Mexican American raised in the U.S. Garcia is part of a stacked Aug. 31 undercard also featuring electro-folk original Helado Negro, indie rock stalwart Hurray for the Riff Raff — each boasting acclaimed new albums of their own — and home state standouts Kassa Overall and Black Belt Eagle Scout.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1; Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St., Seattle; tickets start at $85 single-day pass, $150 two-day pass, kids 10 and younger free with add-on ticket; bumbershoot.com
