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Sasquatch! Music Festival Cancels Its Fourth of July Weekend

Poor ticket sales squash Sasquatch! expansion plans, but the Memorial Day weekend fest will go on as planned.

Seth Sommerfeld
Author: Seth Sommerfeld
1 min.read

The scenic view at Sasquatch!’s main stage.

Well that was sudden. After laying out an ambitious plan to expand Sasquatch! Music Festival into a two weekend affair with separate lineups, festival organizers have announced the cancellation of the second weekend. The July Fourth weekend fest was set to feature headliners including Soundgarden, New Order, and Frank Ocean. Tickets will be refunded via the purchasing credit cards, including for those who purchased the two-weekend ticket package.

It’s hard to say exactly what doomed the second Sasquatch! lineup (other than the obvious lack of ticket sales). In a press release, Live Nation Seattle president Jeff Trisler said “the second weekend was not embraced” and that “Going forward, Sasquatch! Music Festival will be at the Gorge Amphitheatre on the weekend the fans want: Memorial Day Weekend only.” Perhaps it’s just a case of Northwest music fans not wanting to commit both their big summer weekends to traveling to Gorge. Maybe the cost of attending two weekends was just too much to ask economically from its patrons. Or maybe it’s simply that the July lineup of artists quite frankly didn’t stack up to the Memorial Day lineup.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the acts booked for the July edition of Sasquatch!. With many summer touring itineraries already set, the cancellation could potentially mean an influx of great shows in Seattle around Fourth of July weekend (which, admittedly, could be very cool) (UPDATE: New Order just added a Paramount show on July 6 and Sharon Van Etten announced a July 5 concert at the Neptune, so yeah… this is happening). As for the local acts set to play the July fest, word is that some of them are they’re being offered a makeup spot on the Memorial Day weekend lineup (UPDATE: Shelby Earl and Dude York confirm this).

Thankfully, the Memorial Day edition of Sasquatch!—featuring Outkast, the National, Queens of the Stone Age, M.I.A., Neko Case, and more—will still go on as planned. There are still a limited number of available for $325 at Ticketmaster.com (and don’t worry… this one’s not getting canceled).

Sasquatch! Music Festival 2014
May 23–25, Gorge Amphitheatre (George), $325




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Seth Sommerfeld
Seth Sommerfeld
Assistant Editor (Arts) Seth Sommerfeld runs the arts department at Seattle Met, crafting the magazine's On the Town section, editing the Culture Fiend blog, and contributing to reader service features such as “The Ultimate Seahawks Guide” and the front-of-the-book department, Mudroom. Seth has written about music and culture for Rolling Stone, Spin, Pacific Northwest Inlander, Charleston Post and Courier, Syracuse Post-Standard, and Billings Gazette. He also extensively covered the NBA Draft for years for Fox Sports and NBADraft.net, and was published as part of Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology. Originally from Billings, Montana, Seth first lived in Washington while earning an undergraduate degree in journalism and broadcasting at Gonzaga University. He followed up those studies at Syracuse University, where he earned a master’s degree in arts journalism.