Festivals near Seattle

Birthplace of grunge and hometown of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, Seattle carries rock in its DNA, somewhere between the mist of Puget Sound and the neon of Capitol Hill. Every summer that restless northwest neighborhood turns into an open-air stage for the Capitol Hill Block Party, three days when the streets close and the cream of the Pacific indie scene rubs shoulders with pop and hip-hop across clubs and sidewalks. At the foot of the Space Needle, the legendary Bumbershoot sends summer off at Seattle Center over Labor Day weekend, heir to half a century of music, visual art and that unmistakable local irreverence.

The city nurtures its heavier passions too: Northwest Terror Fest gathers the most devoted metal crowd in the darkened rooms of downtown, proof that Seattle never lost its taste for volume and sweat. Yet the Northwest is also wide open country: east of the city, Timber! raises its stages deep in the woods near Carnation, while Wintergrass warms suburban Bellevue with bluegrass in the dead of winter. FestT calculates your FestiScore — how closely a lineup matches your favorite artists — and keeps dates, headliners and ticketing up to date.