Visit Seattle, in partnership with the King County government, will host “Cloudbreak: Seattle’s Revive Live Music Fest,” in support of Seattle’s music community.
“For artists, performers, musicians, who make their living performing, that income had really dried up [during the pandemic] and there wasn’t a lot of individual support,” says Tracey Wickersham, senior director of cultural tourism for Visit Seattle. The two partners wanted to come up with a project that would bring that income and support back, and Wickersham is leading the charge on Visit Seattle’s side of the partnership.
From Nov. 3 to Nov. 23, the festival will work with venue owners and operators to put on 20 days of performances—there won’t be shows every single day, and there may be days with multiple performances. With 26 participating venues, more than 60 scheduled shows, over 150 artists showcased, and more than 70 participating hotel partners, Wickersham hopes this event will drive communal support from both locals and visitors to the Seattle area.
For visitors staying in one of the participating hotels, the venues will set aside a certain number of tickets available for guests—all they need to do is get credentials from the hotel and they can attend the shows for free.
“There’s a really wide variety of genres being represented,” says Wickersham, from “jazz to hip-hop to country to thrasher metal.” She notes that the inability for artists to perform at live, ticketed shows took a heavy toll on the music community, and many were concerned about creative artists not having viable means of expressing their craft or supporting themselves.
This community is “really a key piece of our creative economy,” she continues, and this festival will be a way for people to gather again and support the local artists and venues that are the backbone of this creative community.
cloudbreakmusicfest.org
