The inaugural Heineken City Arts Fest, Seattle, WA - October 20-23, 2010
"Mainstage" Shows:
Belle and Sebastian | Cat Power | She and Him | Blue Scholars | Gogol Bordello | Big Boi
Ticket Options:
VIP Bracelet - $125 - no cover at all City Arts Fest events, access to the opening night party, spot on VIP guest list for ALL Mainstage shows
Bracelet - $60 - no cover at all City Arts Fest events, spot on VIP guest list for ONE Mainstage show.
Single Tickets are available for individual shows.
For festival and ticketing details, visit www.cityartsfest.com
The first annual Heineken City Arts Fest is coming to Seattle! Sponsored by Heineken (of course) and developed and executed by Seattle's wonderfully eclectic City Arts Magazine, the inaugural City Arts Fest features over 100 artists spanning 30+ events, 20+ venues and 4 days, October 20-23, 2010.
The City Arts Fest is just as diverse as the pages of its namesake magazine featuring theater, literature, film, photography, music events and more. The musical acts include local, national and international acts. In addition to the typical Seattle popular music venues (Neumos, Showbox SoDo, Paramount Theatre) City Arts Fest utilizes venues that rarely host popular music acts (Benaroya Hall, 5th Avenue Theatre).
Jake Newman, Associate Publisher of City Arts Magazine and Director of City Arts Fest, took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about City Arts Fest for Melophobe.
Melophobe: Was the City Arts Fest initially planned to be as big as it is (20+ venues, 30+ events) or did it grow out of a smaller idea?
Jake Newman: Initially the idea fluctuated between about 10 events over a week to 10 events in two days. We definitely wanted to have a lot of choices for people, so we could really capture the idea of exploring the city and everything it has to offer. But I have to admit, once we started developing the programming a lot of good ideas came up, great bands were available and interested and we got a little greedy. It took on its own momentum. That said, we did leave a lot of great stuff off the roster that we're thinking about for next year.
Q: Why did you decide to create and execute the City Arts Fest?
A: I was inspired by some great festivals like the New Yorker Festival and MusicFestNW down in Portland. I wanted to create a festival that was kind of a hybrid of the two. They're both these really amazing celebrations of the cities they happen in and bring the publications they are connected to to life. We live in a really beautiful, booming city with great venues and artists and ideas that fill them every night. I wanted to celebrate that. The other thing was trying to build something that captured what it's like to live in Seattle the REST of the year, when it's not perfect outside; to embrace the dark, soggy weather that forces us to go inside and create. Every city is motivated by different elements, and I think Seattle owes a lot of its creative energy to the weather. Sasquatch has the Gorge, we have the 5th Avenue Theatre, the Paramount, Showbox, Neumos...
Q: What are your hopes and plans for the City Arts Fest going forward?
A: I'd like to see it become something that matters a lot to the city and that it become synonymous with fall. I'd like to become a sort of stage where that crazy collaboration can happen, where artists can go out on a limb, where bands can try playing in a venue they don't normally, and where people that attend feel a sense of community between them. We want our events to be a collection of great moments that stay with people. Blue Scholars headlining the Paramount; that's an historic moment. Cat Power is going to be magical at the 5th Avenue, Belle and Sebastian at Benaroya Hall is such a rare performance.
Q: What was the criteria for musicians and other artists performing at City Arts Fest? Was the emphasis on artistic diversity, City Arts staff favorites a mix of both or other?
A: Well, we started off wanting to bring City Arts Magazine to life. To have a variety of events during the festival that represented our point of view. One thing we aim for each month with the magazine, and the other events we produce, is to really assume people have diverse tastes, that they want to be exposed to new art and music. If someone buys a festival wristband because they want to see Cat Power, or because they love Belle and Sebastian, and then they decide to wander in and check out Theresa Rebeck's reading, or the Dolls n Guys musical that is being produced just for this festival, or they discover Eileen Myles poetry or Pat Graney's dance- then we'll have succeeded. Of course I also want them to find out about our magazine. It's really great!
Highlights of the inaugural Heineken City Arts Fest include:
Celebrate the kick off the fall concert season in some of Seattle’s most venerable venues—Belle and Sebastian at Benaroya Hall; The 5th Avenue Theatre hosts She and Him and Cat Power; James Carter and John Medeski at the Triple Door
The FIRST Northwest hip hop headline show at the Paramount with Blue Scholars leading the bill, with Brother Ali, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, Fresh Espresso, and Mash Hall, hosted by Tilson
Head Like a Kite’s Rodeo Burlesque Show—sure to be titillating with Head Like a Kite, Brent Amaker and the Rodeo, Atomic Bomshells Burlesque, and RA Scion
DJ Spooky with Joshua Roman— DJ Spooky, aka Paul Miller’s, North/South project with a solo cello piece composed by Miller for Roman and a debut of a suite by local cellist and composer Paul Rucker
More music with Foals, The Vaselines, Blitzen Trapper, The Weepies, Roky Erickson, Fruit Bats. . .
Soliloquy: Weir Harman and Michael Hebb host famous soliloquies with renowned directors and notable non-actors including Gus Van Sant directing Karl Krogstad, Donald Byrd directing Peter Boal on Raymond Carver, Lane Czaplinkski, Lesley Hazleton, DJ Riz Rollins, and more.
Chase Jarvis’ Seattle 100: Portrait of a City—a curated collection of Chase’s photos of leading artists and musicians, activists and entrepreneurs, who are driving culture in Seattle.
Pulitzer finalist playwright Theresa Rebeck reads and discusses her play The Bells, the tale of a Chinaman lost in the Yukon during the gold rush.
Poetry and Hip Hop Church: Saturday Service with MC’s including Geo, RA Scion, and Macklemore, and poets including Eileen Myles, Storme Webber, and Karen Finneyfrock.
The Complete Metropolis with live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra.
Dolls ‘n’ Guys: A Musical Roulette by Sarah Rudinoff , Nick Garrison, and the Swedish Housewife with an ensemble cast including The Cherdonna and Lou Show, The Stranger’s, Christopher Frizzelle, Brandon O'Neill, The Pica Beats, Jackie Hell, and many more.
Yes, more music including Sera Cahoone, The Young Evils, Fatal Lucciauno, Phosphorescent, The Trashcan Sinatras. . .
PLUS MORE! See the full line up at www.cityartsfest.com.