SEATTLE — When the new Bumbershoot crew put their first arty foot forward last month, outlining plans to make the long-running festival about more than music again, it was meant as a statement. But Steven Severin, a Seattle concert promoter who co-owns Neumos and has thrown shows in this town for 25 years, knows all eyes are going to be on the "re-imagined" fest's musical slate as his New Rising Sun group steers the beloved and embattled event into its next era.
The intrigue around Bumbershoot's four-years-in-the-making return to Seattle Center Sept. 2-3 couldn't be higher, and even in regular years, its lineup announcement is arguably Seattle music's most heavily scrutinized event.
"We're bringing all these different aspects to Bumbershoot as well — bringing the art, bringing the education — but we know in Year One everybody's gonna be looking at the lineup for the music and that's what they're gonna come for," Severin acknowledges. "Next year, hopefully they come just because it was an awesome time."
