With PRIDE kicking off on June 1st, we are completely in for an amazing month of feeling free and feeling loved. Leading up we have some workshops and events that the community can join before the main event on June 23rd through 25th. Their mission is “To Elevate LGBTQ people through arts and advocacy, Honor our past, Fight for a better future, and Celebrate our collective successes.” Each year there is a huge community parade that the crowd can eventually join in! It’s always a loving and energetic good time.
Moving further north of our Seattle area, we’ll be having our Edmonds Art Festival, then Beyond Wonderland, and Fremont Fair all on the same weekend. Personally, the Fremont Fair has been a family tradition since I was little, but I’ve always wanted to go to Beyond Wonderland to experience the rave/EDM scene. Make sure you plan out your weekend accordingly with these back-to-back events. A colorful, artistic illustration of Seattle’s city skyline with a rainbow across the top, and three smaller illustrations of people dancing in the foreground. The three smaller illustrations represent the Edmonds Art Festival, Beyond Wonderland, and Fremont Fair. At the bottom of the image is a speech bubble with the text “Plan your weekend accordingly”
Ending June and kicking off July with the Taste of Tacoma! This year, the Taste of Tacoma will include live entertainment on three different stages, multiple beer gardens, and a retro roller rink! Now it will have a new location, however, in Puyallup. To have more room for attendance and all of the vendors and entertainment, the event has been moved to the state fairgrounds.
During the second and third weeks of July, we’ll have the West Seattle Summer Fest and the Bite of Seattle. This’ll be the first time the Bite of Seattle has been back at the Seattle Center since COVID hit and I don’t know about you but I miss the alligator skewers, they’ll definitely be at the top of my list when it opens up again. It’s a chance for the downtown community to feel as it did in the past. Ending July with another one of my favorites, Pista Sa Nayon! Pista Sa Nayon will celebrate Filipino culture and pride. Even though the food will focus on Filipino cuisine, it’ll also have a variety of tastes for everyone to enjoy.
Ending the summer itself before an amazing early fall kickoff, we have Watershed, Umoja Fest, and then Bumbershoot coming back to the Seattle Center again. Watershed has been the festival for all country and camping lovers. This three-day country music festival not only has a huge lineup, including Luke Bryan but is one of the biggest events that is held every year at the Gorge. It also brings a lot of different people together. Still, within the month of August, we have Umoja Fest! Setting in Judkins Park, Umoja Fest is a festival to uplift and celebrate the African American culture and the African Diaspora culture within music, food, community, and fun for all ages! It’s something my family and I look forward to every year. Hasn’t been a full tradition since we usually travel during that time and August is filled with birthdays but the other side of my family and I try to go each year(minus COVID years of course). That wraps us up for the summer. But, we still get a greatly anticipated festival during Labor Day weekend with Bumbershoot! With it being their first year back, same as the Bite of Seattle, it should be a huge turnout. The lineup is full of a mixture of Indie and Soul artists, and it’ll be the perfect way to end the summer before school starts back up.