One of North America's largest such festivals,[1] it takes place every Labor Day weekend (leading up to and including the first Monday of September) at the 74-acre (299,000 m2) Seattle Center, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair.

Talk radio host Irving Clark Jr. chaired the fair committee, and avant-garde impresario Anne Focke used one-fifth of the budget for light shows (which incorporated lasers, still something of a novelty at that time), computer graphics, enormous inflatable soft sculptures by the Land Truth Company, and an electronic jam session.

[7] With declining government grant support, Bumbershoot tried to keep afloat on donations and sales of posters, buttons, and T-shirts, but poor weather hurt attendance some years and left the free Festival scrambling for more financially stable options.

In the early 1980s, One Reel worked with Red Sky Poetry Theatre (RSPT) which ran many of the Literary Arts aspects of Bumbershoot for several years.

Once again, the festival featured headlining national and international talent (acts that year included Emmylou Harris, Chuck Berry, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Etta James, Clifton Chenier, Eugene Fodor and Martin Mull), but added an admission charge.Initially that admission charge was US$2.50 a day[5] (although there was a "Free Friday",[5] a tradition lasted for over a decade[citation needed]); as of 2007, it had grown to US$40 a day,[9] and to $62 by 2013.

In the new millennium, international artists have included groups such as Baba Maal, The Grand Kabuki Theatre of Japan, and an Ethiopian youth circus.

The deal allowed AEG to assist One Reel with booking musical acts and sponsorship but ultimately proved unfruitful for both parties.

Many of these, such as the Northwest Folklife Festival that premiered at Seattle Center on Memorial Day weekend nine months after the first Bumbershoot, have become established traditions in their own right.

[15] Because of this struggle Chris Porter, "Bumbershoot's music booker of nearly two decades", said that "this time [One Reel] had to bow down to the way AEG wanted to do things in order to get the deal done".

[16] A source told Crosscut magazine that "local AEG staff thought the festival should be saved, and not because it represented a potential chance to make money".

Since Seattle maintains ownership of Bumbershoot, related problems arise such as unions, city overtime pay and police fees.

[17] In many festival-hosting cities, government funding – such as grants – have been organized as to continue the festival and maintain profits from tourism and tax gains.

[21] [better source needed] In March 2023, it was announced that the musical lineup for Bumbershoot 2023 would include Sleater-Kinney, Brittany Howard, Band of Horses, Zhu, Jawbreaker, AFI, the Descendents and Sunny Day Real Estate, among others.