Rock Festival Guide 2008: From Coachella to Lollapalooza

Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival
August 30-Sept 1
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

The Lineup: Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Ingrid Michaelson, Del the Funkee Homosapien, Jakob Dylan, !!!, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Saul Williams, M. Ward, the Walkmen and more TBA.

The Cost: A Standard 3-Day Pass is available now for an astonishing $80 (it goes up to $100 if you wait until after August 16). The Gold 3-Day Pass, which allows access to special seating sections and the air-conditioned lounge (!), plus beer tickets and a poster, cost a just-as-reasonable $195. For $395 you can get a Platinum Pass, which gets you everything the Gold Pass gets you plus even better seats, and access to an ultra-hush-hush "Bumbershoot Music Lounge." (No kidding, the site says it's at a "secret location.") Single-day tickets, with none of those benefits, are available for $35 a day right now, or $40 if you wait until after August 16.

The Skinny: Bumbershoot has been running on and off in different iterations for thirty-seven years, making it one of the longest-running music festival in the biz. Bumbershoot doesn't begin and end with music; like previous years, this year's festival will feature the leading lights of the lit world, along with comedy, film, theater and dance. The lineup is still coming together, but the early announcements — Beck, Neko Case, Jakob Dylan and the reconstituted STP among them — make this year's festival a boon for fans of all things alternative.

Check out all of the 2008 Rock Festivals