Behind the Festival: Belltown Bloom
Seattle's Belltown Bloom festival is back for its fourth year, offering a two-day experience across three stages. This fest champions music discovery, community building, and elevating marginalized voices with a totally unique lineup you can only find there. The event is hosted by The Crocodile and is spread across their 3 venues.
This year’s edition features global stars Aluna and DJ TOKiMONSTA headlining the festival, along with Kara Jackson, BbyMutha, Snow Strippers, Elusin, and more. They are also hosting Lobby Sessions to take place at The Crocodile Hotel as part of an intimate VIP experience during the festival.
I had the opportunity to send some questions over to sisters Veronica and Valerie Topacio, founders and creative directors of Belltown Bloom who work with The Crocodile to bring the festival to life and are responsible for booking regional and local musical talent. Read about their inspirations and process below!
Where did the idea for Belltown Bloom come from and did you have any ultimate goals or guiding principles?
Veronica and Valerie: The idea of Belltown Bloom came to us after years of attending music festivals and a year or so after starting our own band (La Fonda) in our hometown of Seattle. At the 2016 Sasquatch, us sisters were perusing the informational vendor section of the festival, and came across a tent that was educating concert-goers of the representation percentages of women and people of color at 9 major U.S music festivals. They pulled data from the 2015 lineup year and shared that from Sasquatch to Austin City Limits to Coachella to Bonnaroo, 678 bands that were playing these festivals--only 72 of those bands were all female and 102 of those had one woman in the band, and even less--26% of those bands included representation from women of color. These findings really resonated with us. As two filipino women fronting an indie band in grunge culture turned tech in Seattle, we felt out of place on some of these bills and the shows we were playing regionally. We saw ourselves in these thin margins and we felt compelled to create a music space such as a festival that amplified the voices of women, women of color and our queer community. Our guiding principle in a lot of ways, has been the thought of running into those two passionate women sharing facts at that Sasquatch vendor booth. Would love to tell them how much they inspired us.
The festival is now in its fourth year, congratulations! What have you learned in that time? Has it evolved at all since its inception?
Veronica and Valerie: Belltown Bloom has evolved greatly over the years. Our first production of the festival occured in 2019 at The Crocodile before they moved locations during the pandemic. This historic move increased their venue size as they now have three venues onsite as well as a hotel and have been instrumental in booking national talent. Since 2022, we have hosted Alvvays, Mannequin Pussy, Crumb, Wet, L7, and more--and are able to pair incredible global acts with regional talent.
How do you go about curating and booking the performers for the festival? Have there been any particular challenges in putting together such a diverse lineup?
Veronica and Valerie: We work directly with The Crocodile, listen to submissions, watch hours and hours of videos, and work together to find the vibe and energy of where the festival might lean genre-wise. Early on in the booking process, we talk to bands and artists about touring routes and if coming to Seattle for Belltown Bloom is a possibility.
What are your plans for the future of Belltown Bloom?
Veronica and Valerie: The hope for us is to just keep doing this. Every year, we have so much fun working with The Crocodile team, listening to hours of music, going to local shows and discovering regional artists who might want to play the festival-- Belltown Bloom allows us to come together with our community of friends and conscious allies. Every year, our team grows--creatives and music lovers come together to build set designs for the stages, run artist merch, art installations, visuals--it's so amazing and we hope we can continue to build on this platform year after year, challenging ourselves to curate diverse lineups and experiences, making this festival a special one.
Do you have any personal favorite festivals? Or any that you look to for inspiration for Belltown Bloom?
Veronica and Valerie: We were too young to attend Lilith Fair--we were not even pre-teens at the time when this festival was touring--but it's a festival we are inspired by and took inspiration from. It is said that Sarah Mclachlan, the co-founder of Lilith Fair chose the Lilith myth because it celebrated an independent female fighting for equality. Us sisters are guided by this--and view music and producing Belltown Bloom as our extension of giving, stirring positivity and community while helping us stay attune to practices that keep us grounded as women creators and song-writers.
Thank you so much to Veronica and Valerie!
Belltown Bloom is May 4th and 5th in Seattle, WA. The event is 21+. Tickets are available here!