14 Things to Do in Seattle This March

Emerald City Comic Con 2024 @ Seattle Convention Center

Get geeky 🧝‍♀️

📅 Thursday, February 29th – Sunday, March 3rd 
📍 Seattle Convention Center
🎟 Tickets and passes ranging from $5.99 – $420

Whether you’re a gamer, a comic book geek, a cinephile, a TV fanatic, or a cosplay enthusiast, Emerald City Comic Con has you covered. Me, I’m in it for Artist Alley, where you can interact with authors and artists of both mainstream and independent projects and directly support them. Then there are the panels, which range from educational to promotional to extremely goofy. (I recall a stellar one years ago entirely on Tina Belcher.) 

And then, of course, behold the celebrities, there for interviews, autograph signings, and photo ops. Some big-name highlights scheduled to attend are: 

⭐️ Jodie Whittaker (Dr. Who) 
⭐️ John DiMaggio (Futurama, a.k.a. my favorite show of all time) 
⭐️ Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac) 
⭐️ Dante Basco (Hook) 
⭐️ Writer/director Mike Flanagan and actress Kate Siegel (Midnight Mass) 
⭐️ Misha Collins (Supernatural) 

And for those Twihards who filled the SIFF Cinema Egyptian last November, four members of the immortal Cullen family are booked: Peter Facinelli, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, and Kellan Lutz. 

All the VIP tickets are sold out, but a 4-day pass will cost you $145 ($30 for kids), while single-day tickets range from $43-72. And for those who are crowd-averse, consider the Popverse ECCC Digital Ticket, where you can stream video panels from home. 

🖊 MARCUS GORMAN

Dune: Part Two @ SIFF Cinema Downtown and More Seattle Cinemas

Epic film, epic location 🍿

📆 Opens Thursday, February 29th | SIFF showtimes here
🎥 166 minutes
🎟 Tickets start at $14.50
📍 SIFF Cinema Downtown: 2100 4th Ave, Seattle

Now that SIFF Cinema Downtown (FKA Cinerama) has officially reopened, Seattleites have a theater epic enough to contain the sci-fi spectacle that is Dune: Part Two. The clanking and booming of extraterrestrial battles projected by the theater’s Dolby Atmos sound system? Inhaling chocolate popcorn as Paul Atreides monologues? Giant sandworms slithering across the 97-foot curved screen? Sign me up!!!!!!!

Backing up a bit. Dune: Part Two is the second half of director Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of Tacoma-born Frank Herbert’s iconic and intricate space opera. When we last left Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) in Dune: Part One back in 2021, he had just linked up with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen on the distant desert planet Arrakis after escaping the evil clutches of the blood and spice thirsty House Harkonnen. Now, Paul intends to seek revenge on the Harkonnens for destroying his family before time runs out. 

The already stellar crew from the first part will be even more star-studded in this follow-up. (Though Josh Brolin, who plays Paul’s mentor, Gurney Halleck, sums up the cast better than I ever could.) Here’s the gist: A bald and eyebrow-less Austin Butler is Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, Paul’s new mortal enemy, with Dave Bautista playing his older brother, Glossu Rabban Harkonnen. Christopher Walken is Emperor Shaddam IV, and his daughter, Princess Irulan, is played by Florence Pugh. Léa Seydoux, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Tim Blake Nelson are also along for the sandy ride, and composer Hans Zimmer is once again on score duties. 

While reading the original book is not a requirement, watching Dune: Part One is a must if you’re going to understand this film. So do your homework before settling into one of SIFF Cinema Downtown’s cushy seats. And remember—fear is the mind-killer. 

🎟 Save your seat 💺

🖊 JAS KEIMIG

Something’s Afoot @ 5th Avenue Theatre

Muuuuuuuuurdeeeeeeer 🔪

📆 Friday, March 1st – Saturday, March 24th
📍 5th Avenue Theatre: 1308 5th Ave, Seattle

For whatever reason, the rest of our local musical mecca’s season is Duncan Sheik/Steven Sater’s generation-defining, Tony-winning, repressed German teens-have-feelings-and-also-sex rock musical Spring Awakening sandwiched between two ensemble-heavy murder mysteries. In July, there’s Clue, based on the film/board game with such a midnight movie following it’s going to be a hoot to see live. On the other side of that sandwich is Something’s Afoot, opening Friday, March 1st.

Originally produced in the 1970s, it’s ostensibly a version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. (If you’re above a certain age and read the book in middle/high school, it was also called [Censored Title Because We’ve Grown as a Society].) But more than that, it’s a song-filled spoof of Christie mysteries in general, a veritable mother lode for arch silliness. You see, it’s the 1930s, many people have been invited to an English country estate, and the host is muuuuuuuuuuuuurdeeeeeeeeered. With a storm a-brewin’ outside and no way out, the guests must finger the culprit. But given the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker bent of this particular musical, it’s a whole lot zanier than what Christie intended.

Helmed by producing artistic director Bill Berry, the cast includes some stellar 5th alums, including Adam Standley (Ride the Cyclone), Brandon O’Neill (White Christmas), and Stranger Genius Award recipient Sarah Rudinoff (Mamma Mia!), plus a heap of stars from last season’s Sweeney Todd (Yusef Seevers, Anne Allgood, Porscha Shaw).

Whodunit? Who knows? It might be you. Where were you on the evening of [writer suddenly gets stabbed]

🖊 MARCUS GORMAN

Freakout Weekender 2024 @ The Crocodile and More Locations

A much-needed freaking out 🤘

📆 Saturday, March 2nd – Sunday, March 3rd
🎟 Tickets start at $57
📍 Venues including: The Crocodile, Madame Lou’s, Here-After, and Belltown Yacht Club

Now in its third year, Freakout Fest’s kid sibling, Freakout Weekender, once again lands with force in Belltown for a much-needed freaking out. 

Taking the international, psychedelic, punk ethos from the main Freakout Fest—which is longer and held in November—Freakout Weekender stuffs as many bands as possible inside a Saturday and Sunday for a concentrated dose of fun. Across the three stages of the Crocodile complex (the main stage, Madame Lou’s, and the Here-After), plus a stage at Belltown Yacht Club just down the street, 24 acts will strum, drum, and rage over 48 hours. 

One of the weekend’s co-headliners is Fuzz, a scuzzy, ’60s psych rock-influenced trio from San Francisco, which features rocker Ty Segall on vocals and drums. On headlining duties with them is Chicago three-piece Dehd, whose indie rock DIY sensibilities and heartfelt songwriter will be on full display. Derv Gordon, the legendary lead singer of English band The Equals, will also grace the festival with his velvet-smooth voice. Other Weekender highlights include Brazilian dream poppers Boogarin, energetic two-piece Sgt. Papers (I saw them play at the 2022 Freakout Festival and they rock) from Sonora, Mexico, Seattle DJ Gold Chisme’s entrancing darkwave project Dark Chisme, and the woozy, lo-fi, psychedelic rock stylings of Los Angeles’s Levitation Room. 

If you don’t recognize many of the bands on the lineup—don’t worry. The best thing about Freakout Weekender is the curation. Because of this fest, I’ve become a fan of so many cool bands from around the country and Latin America. Drift from room to room and bop along to music that sounds good to you. Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show will be on deck projecting their trippy liquid light show onstage. (Don’t forget your earplugs!)

🖊 JAS KEIMIG

29th Seattle Jewish Film Festival @ Stroum Jewish Community Center and Other Venues

Films from across the globe 🌍

📆 Films screening from Saturday, March 2nd – Sunday, March 17th
🎟 Passes ranging from $70–$200
📍 Venues including AMC Pacific Place, Stroum Jewish Community Center, University of Washington, Walla Walla

The Seattle Jewish Film Festival (SJFF) is back for its 29th outing and is proud to offer 19 different film programs over two weeks all over the city… and even on the other side of the state. Their main base will be the AMC Pacific Place downtown, the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island, a shorts offering at the University of Washington, and even an exhibition in Walla Walla.

“SJFF offers films and experiences that amplify profound connections to Jewish life for everyone,” according to Pamela Lavitt, director of SJCC Arts + Ideas and Festivals. “Cinema can deepen comprehension, inspire conversations, and strengthen community.”

The offerings cover the globe, with features, documentaries, and short films from the likes of Poland, Italy, India, and Hungary. And if you’re a homebody, don’t worry, as selected offerings will be available virtually.

Some eventized highlights:

🎥  Remembering Gene Wilder, a non-fiction ode to one of the 20th century’s greatest comic actors

🎥  One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins as a British stockbroker who saved hundreds of Jewish children in the lead-up to World War II

🎥 The Man Without a World, a modern silent film about an ailing Yiddish actress, with a live score by Alicia Svigals on klezmer and Donald Sosin on piano.

And for the first time ever, SJFF will have their very own Red Carpet Oscar Party at Stroum, where you can don your best duds, grab some appetizers and popcorn, and then head into the theatre for a livestream of this year’s Academy Awards.

🖊 MARCUS GORMAN

Love Lies Bleeding @ Cinemas Around Seattle

A fever dream 🎥

📆 Opens wide on Friday, March 8th

If you haven’t seen Saint Maud, writer/director Rose Glass’ debut feature, get yourself to Amazon Prime right now and hit play. In it, the thin line between religious fervor and untethered psychosis plays out against a caregiver-patient dynamic along the English seaside, with one hell of a final scene. There’s an entire generation of people who love costar Jennifer Ehle who’ll see anything she’s in, but I fear the pandemic dampened Maud’s intended reach. Check it out, for real.

Now with an A24 calling card at the ready, Glass presents a blank check of a psychosexual fever dream with Love Lies Bleeding, a.k.a. the film that already beat the internet to a couple thousand entries of Kristen Stewart slash fiction. K-Stew is a gym manager in 1980s New Mexico, actress/martial artist Katy O’Brian (the PNW’s own Z Nation) is a Vegas-bound competitive bodybuilder, and when their orbits and bodies collide, nobody is safe. Especially not since Stewart’s father is a small-town weapons-running crime boss played with rattling sleaze by Ed Harris, who gives his most bug-nuts performance since 1987’s Walker. (Incidentally, if you come out of this movie wanting more surreality in your cinema, that Alex Cox movie is a great follow-up.)

Love Lies Bleeding is an aggressive, hyperviolent, steroid-injected noir of the highest order, and very much not for the squeamish. Or the homophobic. Go away, homophobes. You already have roughly 90% of American pop culture locked up. Go watch Blue Bloods.

🖊 MARCUS GORMAN

Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday World Tour 2 @ Climate Pledge Arena

Gag City 🌃

📆 Sunday, March 10th
📍 Climate Pledge Arena: 334 1st Ave N, Seattle

Rap beefs are nothing new, but the recent Nicki Minaj and Meg the Stallion feud has been the perfect backdrop for the Pink Friday 2 World Tour. I could go through the details about how Meg went from being a Barb to dissing Minaj in her song “Hiss.” In 2019, the two collaborated on “Hot Girl Summer,” an anthem about being unapologetically authentic—but summer ended, and now Minaj has responded with the diss track “Big Foot.” Making fun of the Stallion’s size and foot. Ouch. And now her fanbase, the Barbz, has taken to doxxing anyone critical of the Harajuku Barbie. 

With the release of Pink Friday 2 and the world tour promoting the new album, the dolls are ready to enter their futuristic phase. It’s been thirteen years since the first Pink Friday‘s arrival. And the tour will indeed include nostalgic nods to past hits like “Super Bass” and “Anaconda.” Speaking of callbacks, joining the tour is ’90s R&B legend Monica, featured on the new song “Love Me Enough.” (Rumor has it Minaj is also trying to get comedian Katt Williams on board for Gag City, the AI-created utopia inhabited by the Barbz.) 

If you can’t make it to the tour, head over to Roblox to play the game with new Nicki-inspired UGC & emotes. A Barbz gotta do what a Barbz gotta do!

🖊 PATHERESA WELLS

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s One Thousand Pieces @ McCaw Hall

Music and mythology 🌀

📆 Friday, March 15th – Sunday, March 24th
📍 Marion Oliver McCaw Hall: 321 Mercer St, Seattle
💻 Streaming digitally Thursday, March 28th – Monday, April 1st

Who doesn’t love a premiere? Who doesn’t love second chances? Who doesn’t love a double feature? Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) brings all three to the stage with One Thousand Pieces. In March 2020, COVID-19 shut down the premiere, canceled two days before opening night. Four years later, the ballet inspired by the stained glass windows of artist Marc Chagall and choreographed by Alejandro Cerrudo will finally open. 

Though based in Chicago, Cerrudo hails from Madrid—and became PNB’s first-ever resident choreographer, showcasing seven works during his three-year tenure. He’s been celebrated for choreographing dance that looks like music sounds and mixing songs through audio engineering. With abstract scene design set to the music of renowned composer Philip Glass, One Thousand Pieces aims to interpret the idea of many pieces coming together to form a larger one, the way that stained glass panels are a composite of many. The dancers, designers, choreographer, and music meld to form vibrant hues, letting light shine through movement. 

The show is double-billed with choreographer Matthew Neenan’s Bacchus, about the Greek god of wine and revelry, which debuted at PNB back in March 2019. PNB will also offer “Ballet Talks,” which are Q&As before and after performances on select nights. A tip: A limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets will be available each Thursday. TeenTix tickets are available to TeenTix participants as well. 

🖊 PATHERESA WELLS

March Edible Plant Sale @ Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands

Marjoram, mint, and more 🌱

📆 Saturday, March 16th
⏰ 9 am – 3 pm
🎟 Free to attend
📍Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands: 5513 S Cloverdale St, Seattle

Tucked a few blocks off Rainier Avenue is Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, the largest urban farm in the city. Co-run by Tilth Alliance and Friends of Rainier Beach and Urban Wetlands and owned by Seattle Parks and Recreation, the farm is home to nature trails, annual and perennial veggies, raised beds, greenhouses, and more. 

The farm is hosting its March Edible Plant Sale to celebrate spring’s arrival, an ideal opportunity to grab things good for growing in your garden this season. They’ll have hundreds of varieties of veggies, herbs, pollinator plants, and edible flowers for visitors to pick up. Newbie gardeners can buy easy-to-grow plants like peas and lettuce, while more experienced green thumbs can choose from heirloom plants like Walla Walla onions and Red Express cabbage. Catnip, parsley, marjoram, mint, and oregano are among the herbs available (I recommend picking up some salad burnet, which tastes just like cucumbers and adds a delicious freshness to a pitcher of cold water). And maybe you’d like to get some pretty and edible pansies, candulas, or violas to decorate your springtime teacakes?

With a garden of edible delights such as this one, it’s important to come prepared. Plants are priced in the $5-15 range, with most falling between $5-8 (cash, debit, credit, Fresh Bucks, and EBT are accepted forms of payment). There will be no parking in or on the streets directly surrounding the farm, so make sure you’ve got a parking spot or light rail plan secured. Tilth Alliance recommends planning out your shopping list ahead of time and urges visitors to bring wagons, carts, boxes, and flats to safely transport your green goods to and from your mode of transportation. And because it’s a farm, there’s minimal cover and sidewalks, so slap on your rain gear and waterproof boots. It’s gardening time!

🖊 JAS KEIMIG

27th Annual Daffodil Day @ Pike Place Market

It’s sprung 🌼

📆 Tuesday, March 19th
⏰ 11 am – 2 pm
📍 Pike Place Market: The corner of Pike Street and Pike Place

March brings many things—spring, the end of Q1, and the start of the Mariners season. But most importantly for Pacific Northwesterners, March also means that daffodils will be in peak season, sprouting in parks and finely manicured flower beds around the city.  

If you’ve stopped by Pike Place Market over the past couple of weeks, you’ve seen boxes filled with this buttery yellow flower lining the roof along the market’s entrance. That’s all in preparation for their 27th Annual Daffodil Day to herald the first day of spring. From 11 am to 2 pm on Tuesday, March 19th, there will be tables full of thousands of daffodils under the market’s clock and sign. Everyone gets two free daffodils while supplies last, so make your selection carefully and quickly. 

All flowers you admire, stick your nose into, and purchase at Pike Place are grown within 100 miles of Seattle by multi-generational, family-owned farms that have been at the market for over 30 years. As much as Daffodil Day is meant to celebrate spring, it’s also meant to celebrate the farms that keep Seattle looking beautiful and smelling good. This year, four farms are responsible for growing these daffodils: Blong’s Garden in Fall City, Lor Garden in Kent, Nguyen Family Farm in Snoqualmie Valley, and Shong Chao’s Farm south of Carnation. 

🖊 JAS KEIMIG

Moisture Festival 2024 @ Broadway Performance Hall 

Keeping vaudeville alive 🎪

📆 Thursday, March 21st – Sunday, April 14th
🎟 Tickets start at $10 – Full prices here
📍 Broadway Performance Hall: 1625 Broadway, Seattle
📍 Emerald City Trapeze Arts: 2702 6th Ave S, Seattle

Way, way back in the day—the day was in 2004—organizers established the first Moisture Festival in Seattle. Inspired by the Oregon Country Fair and a comedy and varietè festival in Berlin, the fest wanted to develop a unique way to showcase Seattle’s vaudeville, circus, and burlesque scenes. (It’s pretty possible I was there at the start, roped into volunteering by a friend, at the five-day event held in a rented tent in Fremont.) As Moisture grew, it made its way to the converted warehouse space of Hale’s brewery, which became Hale’s Palladium. Now, the largest festival of its kind worldwide, its 20th anniversary runs for a month at Broadway Performance Hall. 

In the true spirit of vaudeville, a variety show popular in the early 20th century, each Moisture show has a variety of performers on the bill—and that bill changes from night to night. Aerialists, magicians, strong women/men/people, dancers of every persuasion, comedians, musicians, and more take the stage for three-to-ten minutes, all accompanied by a live band. 

Expect each show to contain about eight to 10 acts with an intermission. A few of the entertainers this year include:  

• Duo Rose trapeze artists 
• Juggler Thom Wall
• Aerialist Avery Cluff 
• Singer-songwriter J.R. Rhodes
• Martika, a one-woman stunt show 

Closing night will move to Emerald City Trapeze Arts. Use the fest’s calendar to see who is performing and when.

In an effort to make Moisture affordable to everyone, accessible seating is available by request. All 3 pm and 7:30 pm shows are for all ages. The 10:30 pm shows are 18+ and contain adult content. Pay what you can on Wednesdays with sliding scale tickets. They also accept TeenTix passes, allowing a $5 day-of-show ticket for TeenTix participants. If you volunteer (like I did), know that volunteers typically get to see most of the shows they work on. How often do you get to mingle with magicians? 

🖊 PATHERESA WELLS

POP Cats 2024 @ Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

Here kitty kitty 🐱

📆 Saturday, March 23rd – Sunday, March 24th
🎟 $10 – $100
📍 Seattle Center Exhibition Hall: 301 Mercer St, Seattle

Most of the time, my Top Picks for The Ticket come from a place of passion, love, and geekery. A desire to contextualize upcoming movies and plays as part of a greater history, or career, or phase of the zeitgeist. Other times, though, it’s an unconscious call impossible to ignore. That’s where POP Cats 2024 comes in.

Me? I definitely have “cattitude.” And when I see that there’s a touring two-day event that combines cats, art, art about cats, and cats about art, and it’ll be nicely centralized at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall (underneath the Pacific Northwest Ballet), that just screams “wonderful afternoon with the family.“

Here’s what’s in store here:

🐱  POP Cats City: an obstacle course-slash-playground to immerse yourself in the POP Cats world

🐱 Adoption Catios: local rescues will be on hand to give you space to play with their sweet babies, provide more information about the adoption process, and perhaps even send you home with a new member of your family (please be a responsible pet owner)

🐱 BYOC!: Bring Your Own Cat (if they are good, person-loving kitties) for photo ops, figure drawing, and testing out merchandise

🐱 And more, including cat-centered video games, costume contests, coloring stations, and a chance to get cattoos

I was so jazzed that I ran to my two cats, Vincent Prince and Béla Lugosi, and gave them the news about the event. In response, they shoved their faces into my various limbs and respectively cried out for belly rubs (Vincent) and treats (Béla), which is their way of thanking me.

🖊 MARCUS GORMAN

Seattle Mariners Opening Day 2024 @ T-Mobile Park

TRIDENTS UP 🔱

📆 Thursday, March 28th
📍 T-Mobile Park: 1250 1st Ave S, Seattle

It’s only been a scant few months since the Seattle Mariners lost out on the playoffs by a single game. (Hope you enjoyed those two extra wild card games, Toronto.) And I’ll be the defensive one and bemoan a very competitive AL West division and also point out that the M’s had a better regular season record (88-74) than the World Series also-rans Arizona Diamondbacks (84-78).

But whatever. I’m a cautious optimist, so I declare that this is going to be strong year for Seattle, where they can back up their top-five pitching rotation with a lineup that can secure actual runs. Sure, I mourn some off-season trades; goodbye to third baseman Eugenio “Good Vibes Only” Suárez, outfielder Teoscar Hernández, cooler-kicking Jarred Kelenic, and Big Boy DH Mike Ford, among others. But the Mariners core now has some sweet add-ons with infielder Luis Urías, catcher/DH Mitch Garver, and the return of outfielder Mitch Hanniger. Plus, outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba gets to join his younger brother Jaxon (standout rookie wide receiver for the Seahawks) as one of SoDo’s finest.

Anyway, it’s time to play some motherflippin’ baseball. Opening day is Thursday, March 28th, with a long weekend series against the Boston Red Sox. Sox games are always good people-watching fun; last season I witnessed a drunken, unintelligible Boston fan get ejected from the main deck after he attempted one of the worst punches I’ve ever seen, thrown a full five feet away from his target. Bless the T-Mo security staff for keeping their cool.

🖊 MARCUS GORMAN

Drie Chapek: Inside The Outside @ Greg Kucera Gallery

Reality and dreams 🖼

📆 On view Thursday, February 15th – Saturday, March 30th
📅 Reception: First Thursday on Thursday, March 7th, 6–8 pm
📍 Greg Kucera Gallery: 212 Third Avenue South, Seattle
⏰ Open Tuesday – Saturday: 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
🎟 Free to view

Drie Chapek’s paintings are heavenly—and I mean that quite literally. Composed of thick goops and globs of acrylic paint, Chapek often incorporates giant puffy clouds through her work, piling color on top of color, making her forms seem almost architectural. Though she paints abstract pieces, Chapek also sets her swaths of paint inside buildings, studios, and rooms, clashing round paint brush strokes against the rigid angles of windows, archways, and vaulted ceilings. The result is paintings that feel like a mishmash of reality and dreams.

For her latest show, Inside The Outside, at Greg Kucera Gallery, Chapek shifts her gaze from the sky to the briny, murky waters of Puget Sound. Partially inspired by her morning ritual of cold water diving, the Edmonds painter’s new body of work is decidedly aqueous—seafoam, teal, stormy gray, azure, and mossy greens are part of nearly every piece. 

“When I thought of the title, I was swimming in the Sound and I wanted to honor what the water’s been doing for me,” Chapek told My Edmonds News in a recent interview. “I was inside the outside.” In the show’s painting called “Midday Living,” a shimmering pool cuts through the floorboards of a study. A serene lavender blue pond surrounded by tall, green ferns slowly morphs into the walls of a music room space in “Midnight Bliss” (in My Edmonds News, she said this is her favorite piece). 

As the warm days of spring are just on the horizon, Chapek’s Inside The Outside is perhaps the best way to honor the blooming of a new season.

🖊 JAS KEIMIG