SUB POP’S ALKI PARTY: New details revealed at Admiral Neighborhood Association

As previewed last week, Sub Pop Records is visiting two community councils in West Seattle this week to talk about its big 30th anniversary party at Alki on August 11th (first announced here in January).

First up – tonight’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting, where Sound Transit light rail and a for-sale greenbelt were discussed too, but Sub Pop’s party was the big story. Lots of new information:

Megan Jasper, CEO of Sub Pop, led the briefing. “We live here,” she said, noting that – as mentioned in the original announcement – many Sub Pop employees and managers live in West Seattle and want to do their best to make this an event their own neighborhood can be proud of.

The band lineup is currently planned to be unveiled May 29th. Now that we have that question answered, about the crowd estimate:

30,000? wondered some WSB commenters. That’s based on what they drew for their 25th birthday bash in Georgetown, Jasper (photo right) and other Sub Pop reps told ANA. Maybe this crowd will be smaller, but they want to be ready just in case.

Four stages are planned, with the main ones near Alki Bathhouse and by Blue Moon Burgers. There’ll be a kids-and-family zone with a separate stage on the Alki Elementary playfield. That one will close at 6 pm, others at 8 pm, and it’ll all be over by 10 pm. The final stage with the closing act will face west toward the water. Scheduling will be spaced so that one group at a time will be playing – you won’t have to make tough decisions.

Alki Avenue will be closed from 57th SW to 63rd SW. (The city is reported to have floated the idea of extending the closure zone, but so far that’s only an idea.) Sub Pop says the planning includes an emergency lane down the inland side of the street in that area. Lots of other questions about traffic – some attendees wondered about Bonair uphill and other back ways in/out of Alki, and Sub Pop said that will be included in their continuing conversations/planning.

About incoming traffic – Sub Pop is working to get the T-5 area across from the Harbor/Florida 7-11 open for parking and are working on shuttles from areas such as The Junction and Morgan Junction. They also are looking into setting aside a space where ride-share drivers (Uber, Lyft, etc.) can drop off and pick up eventgoers.

Also: They’re recruiting cleanup volunteers to ensure that this is a zero-waste area. They will not only work on festival day/night to be sure the event zone and nearby streets are clean, they’ll also be back afterward.

Another tidbit: Lil’ Woody’s (which has burger joints in White Center as well as other parts of Seattle) is working on the Alki beer gardens.

The Southwest Seattle Historical Society is working with Sub Pop – it’s based at the beach after all, and this is about history! – and plans a Log House Museum exhibit on festival day reflecting West Seattle music history, including some of the famous musicians who live here.

Got questions? Want to hear the full briefing firsthand? Next one is at the Alki Community Council‘s meeting on Thursday night (March 15th), 7 pm at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds).

P.S. Added as per discussion in comments – here’s the flyer Sub Pop circulated at the meeting.

Also at tonight’s Admiral NA meeting:

SOUND TRANSIT LIGHT RAIL: ANA president Larry Wymer is also on the board of the West Seattle Transportation Coalition and led a discussion/presentation. He went through the Junction Neighborhood Organization‘s slide deck proposing a partly tunneled option – we went into it in detail when JuNO showed it to WSTC last month; here’s the slide deck again:

(Slide deck for JuNO tunnel proposal)

The tunnel idea was received favorably – the elevated plan could pose problems including noise and impediments to West Seattle’s prized views, attendees observed. Other points of discussion included how buses would get from the Admiral District to the planned light-rail stations in Delridge, Avalon/35th, and The Junction, given the depleted state of Admiral bus service in general currently.

Next up in light-rail planning, by the way, is tomorrow’s Stakeholder Advisory Group meeting (5-8 pm at Sound Transit’s Ruth Fisher Board Room in Union Station downtown, 401 S. Jackson).

COLLEGE STREET RAVINE: Elaine Ike from Seattle Green Spaces Coalition told attendees that the group has learned that an undeveloped greenbelt space in the ravine vicinity is for sale. They want a walkthrough with the city and the real-estate broker to determine where this privately owned land starts and where the public land begins, and they want ANA to be involved. Preserving the ravine as public greenspace goes back to the days of West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Charlie Chong, she noted.

SUMMER CONCERTS AT HIAWATHA: The lineup for this year’s series (which WSB is again co-sponsoring) should be ready to announce by the next ANA meeting in May.

SPEAKING OF THE NEXT MEETING: ANA now meets every other month, second Tuesdays, at 6:30 pm, The Sanctuary at Admiral (42nd SW/SW Lander), so you’re invited to the next one, May 8th.

21 Replies to "SUB POP'S ALKI PARTY: New details revealed at Admiral Neighborhood Association"

  • Elly March 14, 2018 (8:47 am)

    What, what for-sale green belt?? 😡 we need more not less green/ open space 

    • WSB March 14, 2018 (8:48 am)

      The listing is linked in the story and has maps and other details.

      • dsa March 14, 2018 (10:48 am)

        Sorry, but the link does not show on win 10.

        • Trickycoolj March 14, 2018 (11:10 am)

          Scribd is probably blocked by your workplace. I know my workplace blocks scribd and google docs/chat functionalities.  Shows fine currently on my iPhone viewing the desktop version of the site. 

      • chemist March 14, 2018 (11:48 am)

        Maybe you can re-link it?  The listing is not showing on desktops or in the page source.  Just a link to the .org group.

        .

  • NSAlki March 14, 2018 (10:01 am)

    I am glad they are trying to make this kid friendly. Maybe that won’t attract the racers in loud cars or motorcycles. The weather is getting warmer and with that, we have the usual crowd of trouble makers in Alki. Almost got run over last Saturday by some teen going really fast in his lowered Honda Civic.

    I hope this event goes well and there is police presence.

  • webcami March 14, 2018 (11:08 am)

    Are there any plans to get the bathrooms  up and running at 57th and Alki?  They’ve been closed for the last few years and with this many people we are going to need all the working bathrooms we can get!  And where do we sign up to volunteer for clean up?

  • Diane March 14, 2018 (12:43 pm)

    glad I was able to make it to the Sub Pop presentation last night; they provided lots of details and answered lots of questions; if you want to know more, I’d highly recommend going to hear them on March 15 at the Alki CC meeting; Sub Pop also provided a detailed flyer with contact info; did wsblog pick up a copy to post here for folks with questions?  or a video of the Sub Pop speakers?  they even had a microphone, always really helpful; I was very impressed with everything shared by this group and look forward to this event

  • scubafrog March 14, 2018 (4:06 pm)

    I can’t imagine 30k+ people clustered on Alki kid-friendly,  or neighborhood-friendly.   It’s not the Cannabis or psychedelics I’m worried about, or even the opioids.  It’s the meth-critters and drunks (I can assume many things will be stolen and vandalized).

    A very poor choice for a concert.  I’d like to see if some residents sue to stop it.  I’d get in on that lawsuit.

    • WestyD March 14, 2018 (4:32 pm)

      Can’t wait for this amazing, historic event! 

    • NW March 14, 2018 (5:26 pm)

      Agreed it’s a poor choice of where to have such an event. 

      • Alkiletterman March 14, 2018 (7:16 pm)

        This will be an incredible event BECAUSE of the location!  Embrace it people.

        • Ken March 15, 2018 (9:30 am)

          Yes, the location is perfect.  Think of the attendees  who might not otherwise ever visit the Alki area.  They will have a chance to discover new businesses, restaurants, etc and potentially return in the future to frequent those establishments.  Besides that, this event is scheduled for only for one day for ten hours.  That’s only .11% out of the entire year.  Pretty minuscule amount of time in the grand scheme of things. Get over yourselves people.

  • Trickycoolj March 14, 2018 (6:01 pm)

    Sounds like fun, hope they can work out some kind of shuttle arrangement as mentioned from the Junctions and T5.  Wouldn’t mind walking to the event from High Point but that’s a steep slog home that late at night.

  • Jort March 15, 2018 (10:28 am)

    For all the whiny, whiny complaining about the concert, think about the plus side: the concert will probably end up being more quiet than the fart-cars and masculinity-aid motorcycles revving up and down the road all day and night!

    See! Look on the bright side!

    • Mike March 15, 2018 (6:21 pm)

      Wow, I actually agree with you

  • dunnkld March 15, 2018 (11:43 am)

    Well, I’m glad the Silver Jubilee gave a boost to Georgetown businesses, but Alki really doesn’t need that unless it causes more  people to  come back and visit on rainy winter weekdays.  Still, it will be interesting to see.  I bet there will be a huge flotilla of people watching from boats.

  • Walk Don't Run March 20, 2018 (12:40 pm)

    Hopefully “Child” WILL be playing at this event.

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