Fourth of July might be over, but there are still countless events happening before Seattle makes its way toward the smoke season. We’re rounding up some of our top picks, from art parties in historic buildings to Swiftie meet-ups in SoDo.
🖼 XO Seattle 2023 @ Former Coliseum Theater Building 🖼
Every Weekend in July
@theticketsea In the downtown Seattle space once occupied by Banana Republic, XO Seattle has opened a new summer exhibition featuring over 60 artists on two floors. (You might remember XO Seattle from last year’s exhibition at the RailSpur building as part of Forest for the Trees.) Highlights from this year’s show include Cathy McClure’s robotic mice, Experience Research Lab’s subterranean bar, and Botanical Audio Research x MA/SV’s incredible “Bioflux Planitarium” installation of “quadraphonic A/V controlled by plants” in the basement of the building. They’re hosting events throughout the summer until September 8th. Head to the link in bio for tix and details. #seattleart #xoseattle #coliseumtheater ♬ original sound – TheTicketSeattle
📅 Events happening July 13th – September 10th
📍 Former Coliseum Theatre Building: 1512 5th Ave, Seattle
I think the hottest place to be last summer was at XO Seattle’s temporary, dual-level art installation in Pioneer Square. Done in conjunction with art organization Forest for the Trees, the team organized an exhibition of 100+ artists, featuring everything from vibrant paintings to sculptures made of sugar, as well as hosting one-off dance performances and music events.
This summer, XO Seattle is poised to do it again—this time inside the old Coliseum Theater building downtown. Throughout the rest of the summer, the “roving curatorial practice” run by Julianne Johnson, Austin Bellamy Hicks, and Joe Zaczyk has enlisted another fleet of over 60 incredible artists. Along with co-curators like painters Anthony White and barry johnson, curator Katelyn Norris, and multidisciplinary artist Nicholas Galanin, XO Seattle is stuffing tons of freaky, experimental, local art across two floors. Plus, art and design collective Experience Research Lab has crafted an immersive subterranean bar experience on the bottom floor.
You’ll have many opportunities to check out all that XO Seattle is cooking up this summer. Their official grand opening party featuring music from HRVST House goes down on Friday, July 14th, with regular open gallery/party hours every weekend of the month. From July through September, XO Seattle will also host special events like designer dan mcLean’s fashion show on July 20th, Artifacts dance performance on July 27th, a two-night music experience from KEXP and Chastity Belt from August 18-19th, and more. 🖊 JAS KEIMIG
Get tickets here 🎟
🛩 Top Gun: Maverick @ Marymoor Park 🛩
Wednesday, July 26th • 7:30 pm
📸: Top Gun: Maverick
🤝 Screening a part of BECU Outdoor Movies 2023
📅 Wednesdays and Thursdays from July 6th – August 23rd
📍 Marymoor Park: 6046 West Lake Sammamish Pkwy NE, Redmond
📞 (206) 477-7275
There’s nothing like a summer evening in the PNW. The weather is warm, and the sun stays out a little longer. If you want to soak up those Seattle summer evenings, why not watch an outdoor movie at Marymoor Park? You can catch a movie under the stars starting the first week of July through August 23rd—and on Wednesday, July 26th, the series is screening Top Gun: Maverick.
This year’s lineup features a range of kid-friendly classics to newer blockbusters. On Wednesday, July 12th, you can see this year’s surreal yet touching Best Picture winner, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Catch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for a thrilling Marvel adventure on Wednesday, August 9th. Maybe you’re looking for a little Pixar magic? Up will be playing on Thursday, August 6th. Or if you’re looking for a good classic, The Princess Bride will play on Wednesday, August 23rd, the series’ last summer screening.
Tickets are $10, and little ones five and under get in for free. Did we also mention that movie nights are dog-friendly? Get in early to secure a spot and set up a picnic spread. Outside food and non-alcoholic drinks are welcome! If you’re holding out for concessions, there will be food trucks serving tasty treats, plus live music to enjoy before the movie starts. 🖊 KAYLYN NESE
Get tickets here 🎟
📕 Red Paint Author Talk @ Third Place Books 📕
Tuesday, July 25th • 7 pm
Red Paint: the Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk is a book by Sasha taqwšeblu LaPointe. Join the author at the Third Place Commons Stage for a talk about her work and personal journey. https://t.co/PI3V9ZduTI pic.twitter.com/fsJnzgfEi0
— King County Library (@KCLS) June 28, 2023
📍 Third Place Books – Lake Forest Park: 17171 Bothell Way NE #A101, Lake Forest Park
📞 (206) 366-3333
“I had excavated the bones of those memories, unaware that they would reanimate, that they would chase me into dreams. The bones took shape in these flashbacks,” writes Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe in her memoir Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk. A member of the Upper Skagit as well as having ancestry from the Nooksack and Swinomish Indian Tribes, LaPointe traces her journey to connect with her matrilineal bloodline while processing intergenerational and personal trauma. A teenage runaway whose family moved frequently, LaPointe was nomadic for much of her adult life and paints a portrait of the Washington landscape from Oyster Dome to the Duwamish and on down to Ilwaco.
“You come from a long line of strength. It’s in your blood,” Lapointe’s mother reminds her. She returns to the “canoes” (stories) of her ancestor Comptia Koholowish and her grandmother and namesake Lushootseed linguist Vi taqʷšəblu Hilbert in search of that strength. Lapointe doesn’t dwell on the circumstances of her traumatic early childhood events, instead showing her full-bodied approach to reclaiming herself, first through drugs and entering the punk scene and eventually through ancestral rituals and joining an all-women punk band.
For anyone who has ever been blindsided by a trigger and took off running then spent days on end in bed, there are a lot of those moments to relate to. LaPointe’s poetry collection, Rose Quartz, complements her poetic memoir, where rose quartz figures prominently in her recovery—it is the gemstone of deep healing and self-love.
Red Paint won the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award and is part of King County Library’s annual Lake Forest Park/Shoreline/Richmond Beach Reads program. Red Paint will be 20% off at all Third Place locations during July. You can read an interview with her here. 🖊 KATIE KURTZ
Get tickets here 🎟
🎭 Six The Musical @ Paramount Theatre 🎭
Closes Sunday, July 23rd
📸: Six The Musical
📅 Runs July 12th – 23rd
📍 Paramount Theatre: 911 Pine St, Seattle
📞 (206) 682-1414
Divorced, beheaded, died
Divorced, beheaded, survived
And tonight we are LIVE!
SIX is the show your excitable young Anglophile niece has been telling you all about for going on six years now. The premise: The six wives of Henry VIII have gathered to put on a concert where they will prove which of them suffered the most at the hands of their infamous husband. The music, costumes, and vibes are all modern, and each of the wives has a pop/R&B equivalent to give them their own special shine, spark, and attitude. Jane Seymour is an Adele/Celine Dion-esque belter, while Catherine of Aragorn fits more into the Beyoncé mold, Katherine Howard is a Britney/Ariana sendup, and so on and so forth. Backed up by an entirely female band, it’s a wickedly funny, emotionally resonant, and head-bobbing night of performance.
It’s also a crowdpleaser designed for families; at the Broadway performance I attended, I’d estimate that the audience was 50% young girls in princess dresses having the time of their lives and falling in love with live theatre, while the adults chuckled and smiled at the cleverness of the score. Even better? The show is barely 80 minutes long, including the climactic (and very British musical theatre) megamix of the show so far, so you’ll be home long before bedtime.
With music, lyrics, and books by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, SIX started as a commission by the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society (Marlow and Moss were still students at the time), then became a hit at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, then took the West End by storm, and then was about to kill on Broadway in March of 2020 when the pandemic closed it the day of its scheduled opening night performance. Finally opening stateside for the 2021-2022 Broadway season, it ended up winning two Tony Awards (Score and Costumes) and would have won more were it not for the incredibly worthy and innovative A Strange Loop opening in the same season.
It took a while for the tour to arrive in Seattle, but now you can finally surprise that little girl in your life (or inside you) with tickets. 🖊 MARCUS GORMAN
Get tickets here 🎟
✨ Taylor Swift Concert “Par-TAY!” @ The Press Box Seattle ✨
Saturday, July 22nd and Sunday, July 23rd • 3 pm – 12 am
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📍 The Press Box: 1518 1st Ave S Suite 100, Seattle
📞 (206) 327-9777
As Taylor prepares to take over Seattle’s Lumen Field for two enchanting nights in July, the crowds will likely go wild as they shine and sing along to her impressive three-hour, 44-song show.
If your social feeds look like mine, it’s been nothing but Taylor Swift since March, watching Swifties around the country enjoying—IMO!—the most iconic tour in history. There’s something special about jumping on live streams to see what surprise songs she performs each night, the costumes people have spent countless hours creating, and the friendship bracelets everyone trades at the shows. The people who survived the Ticketmaster Great War truly are the lucky ones, and now it’s our turn to experience the magic in the air.
If you missed out on tickets (same) or are looking for things to do before the tour, a Taylor Swift-themed “par-TAY” is happening at The Press Box near the stadium. Produced by Xperience Tailgates, the party will happen before, during, and after the concerts, with Era-themed cocktails, photo ops, merch, and even a costume contest. Pregame the concert here or hang out with other fans at this venue near the stadium if you couldn’t get your hands on Taylor tickets. 🖊 KAYLEE BOTTING
Get tickets here 🎟
🏀 Seattle Storm vs. Chicago Sky @ Climate Pledge Arena 🏀
Saturday, July 22nd • 6 pm
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📍 Climate Pledge Arena | 334 1st Ave N, Seattle
📞 (206) 752-7200
So far in 2023, the Seattle Storm are feeling Sue Bird’s retirement in a not insignificant way, going from 2nd in 2022 to (at the time of this writing) a 4-10 record as they approach the season’s halfway point. But aside from a couple… let’s call them blowouts… courtesy of the Las Vegas Aces, the Storm losses are close games, and seeing them live in person at Climate Pledge Arena is one of the best (and best-valued) tickets in town for good, old-fashioned entertainment and camaraderie. (Example: The June 11th game against the Washington Mystics, where they crawled back from a 25-point deficit in the first half and kept the Mystics to only eight entire points in the final quarter, was a raucous nail-biter and easily matched a Kraken game in terms of sheer crowd volume.) The point is, there’s still plenty of season left, #24 Jewell Loyd is dominating the game, and the fans are truly lovely people.
And on Saturday, July 22nd, it’ll be more than just a game against the Chicago Sky because that evening includes the Storm’s annual Believe in Women Night. The ceremony, which the Storm has been celebrating since 2006, is built to honor women who have served and made a difference in the Greater Puget Sound community through activism, business, and philanthropy. Previous honorees include author Ijeoma Oluo, chef/restauranteur Makini Howell, Northwest African American Museum Executive Director LaNesha DeBardelaben, Governor Chris Gregoire, and Mary’s Place Executive Director Marty Hartman.
Additionally, they give out the Ginger Ackerley Award, “given to an individual who has made an impact on improving the quality of life in the local area,” and I’ll bet it’s somebody only two or three degrees removed from you. 🖊 MARCUS GORMAN
Get tickets here 🎟
🎤 Capitol Hill Block Party 2023 🎤
Friday, July 21st – Sunday, July 23rd
📸: CHBP 2023
📍 925 E Pike St, Seattle
For three blissful, sweaty summer days, Capitol Hill Block Party takes over Pike/Pine, turning streets into venues and bringing some of the hottest national—and local!—acts to the neighborhood. And this year, CHBP is celebrating its 25th anniversary in style.
The 2023 lineup has a decidedly Zoomer tilt to it—dance music duo Sofi Tukker, experimental rapper Denzel Curry, and electronic music group Louis the Child will headline each day of the festival. Other heavy hitters include English musician PinkPantheress and her sweet, jungle-inspired pop songs; Atlanta alt hip-hop duo Coco & Clair Clair and their flossy, sparkly tracks; and rap rocker Rico Nasty’s wild outfits and antics. You geriatric millennials might recognize names like singer Empress Off, DJ and producer Channel Tres, and theeee Rebecca Black of “Friday” fame. There’s a little something for everyone.
CHBP always has a good curation of Seattle-based acts as well. Roll through to support hometown heroes like rapper-singer Taylar Elizza Beth, post-punkers Weep Wave, the riot grrrl-inspired Lemon Boy, psych rockers Acid Tongue, neo-soul band i///u, and drag queen Kylie Mooncakes’ drag showcase. This year CHBPartiers can check out an estimated ten stages across the weekend: the Main Stage and Vera Stage being the biggest, with satellite stages at Chophouse Row, Wildrose, Vermillion, Cafe Racer, Cha Cha, and the Neumos complex. Make sure to hydrate and wear sunscreen! 🖊 JAS KEIMIG
Get tickets here 🎟
🎶 Chong the Nomad @ Westlake Park 🎶
Thursday, July 20th • 12 – 1:30 pm
@theticketsea 🎵 Free summer concerts are back in downtown Seattle 💃 Close to 40 artists will perform at various outdoor stages throughout Seattle’s downtown core until the end of Downtown Summer Sounds on September 8th. R&B artist and Seattle-native UMI (@umi) kicked off this year’s concert series with a joyful set at Westlake Park last Friday. Pick up a stamp card at a concert from @Downtown Seattle Association —attend six shows and you can return your card for a chance to win a stay at The Edgewater Hotel. ⏰ Concert times and locations are all at our #linkinbio 👆 #thingstodoinseattle #downtownsummersounds #theticket ♬ original sound – TheTicketSeattle
🤝 Performance happening as part of Downtown Summer Sounds 2023
📅 Free concerts happening from July 7th to September 8th
📍 Westlake Park, Occidental Square, and more public spaces
DJ and producer Chong the Nomad will deliver midday grooves to Westlake Park on July 20th from 12 to 1:30 pm as part of this year’s Downtown Summer Sounds concert series. Presented annually by the Downtown Seattle Association, Downtown Summer Sounds is held across two summer months, with over 35 shows at Westlake Park, Occidental Square, City Hall Park, and other downtown locations. Concerts include a range of genres, from punk to funk to hip hop. You can peep the whole line-up here, but Chong the Nomad is one of our favs. 🖊 PATHERESA WELLS
FREE! 🎟
