If you ever doubt that Seattle (still) has an embarrassment of riches in terms of arts, food, and entertainment, I would point you towards this recently-passed weekend. There was the Ballard Seafood Fest, where people ate fish and listened to twangy rock music. In the ID, there was the food, art, and music of Dragon Fest.
West Seattle had it’s Summer Fest, with enough bands and bros (not like that, but kinda like that) to make me consider hopping the water taxi.
In Judkins Park the artist/activist collective TUF had TUF fest with an impressive array of speakers and musicians.
A few blocks from Dragon Fest, at the edge where the ID turns into SODO, you had the Bash at Inscape, formerly known as Big Bldg Bash. In it’s fifth year, it’s already a legend in the DIY/indie/weirdo rock communities it serves.
In addition, you had plenty of protests, fundraisers and events organized to protest the many disgraceful policies being currently enacted by the Republican administration.
Not to mention the usual roster of available movies, shows, and readings.
And of course, the presence of multiple lakes, and weather that makes being near water pleasant af.
So what did I do?
Mainly, I hid in my apartment. I had friends, friends of friends, or acquaintances that show up in my feeds involved in all the above events. All of them. Meaning opening any of my socials was a veritable deluge of #gethere. Each of the events was clearly the funnest, most interesting, most important, culturally relevant thing that one could be doing in Seattle (except Ballard Seafood Fest, clearly, but I do like some lutefisk.) The information overload was exhausting, and I wasn’t even doing any of it.
And it all looked awesome.
And awful.
And I told myself I’d go next time, and I definitely might.
This is probably familiar to anyone who’s felt technology fatigue; or the combination of guilt and FOMO when your pals are out making and doing things and you should be supporting them. Summers in Seattle are great for many things, and I’d certainly rather live somewhere with an abundance of options than a dearth. Doubtlessly, my work schedule also contributed to the feeling of overwhelm, any given day I’d be leaving an event to work, or leaving work to get to an event, so the casual, walk-around-and-drink vibe of a festival was unavailable to me.
As it will be next weekend, when there’s the Capitol Hill Block Party, and all it’s 8,203 counter-programming events. I’m looking forward to missing that, too, and feeling bad about it.
