(Photos by Dave Gershgorn for WSB)

You can shop, nosh, sip – and play, at West Seattle Summer Fest. We’re going into the first night of the festival and mainstage music is ramping up too, with Madman Across the Water onstage right now, and these three acts up next:

8:00 – Couch Riffs presents Funkadelic Tribute
9:00 – THEM
10:00 – Jenn Champion

(added) Here’s some of the Madman set (Elton John music):

The West Side Stage has shut down for the night; it’s by the Wells Fargo drive-thru off the west end of SW Alaska. Vendor booths are open until about 8, on California north and south of SW Alaska:

One of the booths features authors – stop by the Author Event Network booth to learn about writers and their work:

No matter what your age or size, you’re likely to find something of interest:

And year-round businesses have sales and deals too, so stroll the sidewalk while you’re here! Updates to come…

(FESTIVAL QUICK LINKS: MUSIC LINEUPS … VENDOR LIST … FOOD/DRINK LIST … BUS REROUTES)

1:35 PM: At the top of the hour, that dynamic duo officially opened West Seattle Summer Fest 2025. They’re Stacie Woods, events director, and Chris Mackay, executive director, both with the West Seattle Junction Association, the nonprofit merchants alliance that presents the festival.

We’re in the Info Booth again this year, and if you’ve been in years past, note that like some other things, it’s in a different location – further north this year, parallel with Easy Street Records‘ big sale tent. Also different this year: The food’s on the west side of Alaska, including seating in the lot behind KeyBank, and the Kids Zone is on the east side of Alaska. The main music stage is in the same place as every year, on California north of Oregon, next to the beverage garden, and music starts at 3 pm, both there and on the smaller West Side Stage. Meantime, we’re on the north side of the Info Booth, with community organizations (SPD Crime Prevention and the Duwamish Solidarity Group) on the east side, and Junction Association volunteers selling festival merch on the south side. The festival’s on until 8 tonight, with music running until about 11 pm!

2:50 PM: Above, that’s a mobile romance bookstore, one of the unique vendors here – they’re close to the north end of the booth zone. Not far beyond, we bumped into our first political-candidate sighting of the festival:

That’s Joe Mallahan, who’s running for mayor – again. (Mike McGinn beat him in 2009.) You’ll find him and seven other candidates on the August 5th primary ballot. (We have a policy of photographing local candidates seen at Summer Fest, so if you’re running for something, stop by the Info Booth.) …

Really important note about the food zone – if you just walk into the section of Alaska west of California, it might look kind of sparse. Don’t stop there! In the parking lot behind KeyBank, LOTS of food tents, and places to sit and eat and drink, first year ever.

Lots of seating by the West Side Stage, which is next to the Wells Fargo drive-thru.

Music has just begun on both stages – so we’re off for some video.

3:42 PM: And there it is, a bit of Mason Lowe, first band on the main stage. Coming up at 4 pm – Mr. Dinkles.

South of Oregon, on the east side of the booth row, you’ll find a couple local nonprofits – the West Seattle Food Bank is still selling its Summer Raffle tickets, and the Rotary Club of West Seattle, which would be happy to talk with you about their community work (upcoming: tree gleaning!):

More coverage to come!

4:48 PM: Rootbeer played this hour on the West Side Stage:

As is typical for Day 1, the crowd continues to grow, but it’s still not mega-crowded.

6:09 PM: Weep Wave took the main stage last hour:

Vendor booths are open until 8 pm but we’re getting to the time when dinner and music take centerstage, literally and figuratively! We’re going to wrap up this report and launch a new one with more scenes from Summer Fest Day 1. Coming up tonight, THEM is onstage at 9 pm, Jenn Champion at 10 pm.

By Hayden Yu Andersen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

From the basement of Mode Music Studios to the top of the Space Needle, West Seattle-rooted band THEM has quickly marked itself as a standout in Seattle’s music scene. The more the band’s popularity grows, though, the more its core members reaffirm that no matter what, they’ll always be a group of friends first and foremost.

At 9 pm tonight, THEM will be performing on the West Seattle Summer Fest main stage. This will be their third performance at Summer Fest, and for the group, a hometown show. All four members of THEM met at West Seattle High School in 2017, “so getting to play five minutes from our stomping grounds is very very special,” said THEM member Hudson.

“It was a bit of a surprise to my family when I asked for a guitar for Christmas,” Hudson told us. “Since then, I’ve tried to learn everything I can get my hands on.” Sticking with the band’s theme of never losing touch with their roots, band members Thompson, Hudson, Ellie, and Lydia are all still working with Mode in some capacity, whether hosting a summer program or working at the front desk.

Since the band’s founding eight years ago, they’ve gone from, as Ellie put it, “Hundreds of shows where maybe our parents were there,” to the top of the Space Needle – broadcast on TV – during the 2024 New Year’s celebration, and the blinding lights of the Paramount Theater, where they all at one point worked as ushers. But according to Ellie, their enthusiasm was always the same, whether the crowd was one or one thousand people.

The spotlight has gotten less scary as time goes on, according to Thompson. “Before every show, we’re backstage talking through our set, and then we have a little chant and do some breathing exercises,” She said, “I think because we’ve played together so long, that stage fright isn’t present. It also helps so much that we’re all together and we’re all friends.”

They’ll be taking the energy back home tonight, in a show that’s more than just a return tour. Soon, the band will be moving to LA, which makes this a bittersweet sendoff. “Of every performance we’ve done,” Lydia said, “I think this is the one I’m the most excited for.” “It’s like a sendoff to our home,” said Thompson, “To get to play at Summer Fest again.

Tonight’s sendoff is just the beginning for a new chapter in THEM’s history. Outside of performing, Lydia enjoys photography and videography, and she’s been working with the rest of the band to produce more music videos, which you can find on their YouTube channel.

“We’ve all spent so much time here, so looking out and seeing all of our favorite people and places is going to be so special,” said Hudson, “The people of West Seattle are the reason we get to go everywhere else and play.” See them at 9 pm tonight on the Summer Fest main stage (California SW north of SW Oregon) – and for more news about where THEM is performing next, check out their Instagram page.