Things to Do in Seattle

A roster of cider filled mostly with home-state brews and a few distant counterparts—as far-flung as Ciderboys from Wisconsin and France’s AVAL Cider—makes up an outdoor festival adjacent to Denny Park. Dogs are invited, and each ticket scores 12 tastes.

A collaboration between Preservation Meat Collective and sibling chefs Trinh and Thai Nguyen yields the beloved Bò and Béo dinners. This iteration adds dry-aged duck to the usual beef cuts and sauces like Kampot pepper au poivre, Vietnamese chimichurri, and black garlic pho butter.

Pizza gets an upscale makeover in the hands of Roma Roma’s Forrest Brunton and Pizza by Ruffin’s namesake Isaiah Ruffin. The pair of fine-dining chefs turned pizzaioli dish up various pies with Dungeness crab, heirloom plums, and T-bone steak atop crusts concocted from croutons and smoked potatoes in a one-night-only chef dinner.

Ethereal installations from Lotus L. Kang land at the free First Hill museum this summer. Poetic reflections on memory, translation, and inheritance take the form of huge floor-to-ceiling photography film sheets intentionally exposed to light. 

Monochromatic paintings by Samantha Yun Wall are both haunting and captivating; their inspiration draws from a Korean folk tale of loss and familial ties, a flower motif weaving together the pieces that speak to stigmatization and taboo. 

Pioneer Square’s Shift Gallery hosts sculpture and paintings by Dodi Fredericks and Sue Springer this month; as part of the city-wide Art and Culture Week, both artists set up handmade books ripe with invitations for visitors to paint, draw, collage, and write inside their pages. 

The final in PacSci’s summer music series beneath the quintessential arches, Modular Seattle brings synth and modular artists to the stage. Electronic soundscapes powered by synthesizers and hardware-based setups will fill the dusk hours; bring a blanket and soak in the free concert under sunset skies.

Nothing screams summer quite like a concert under PNW skies; Woodland Park’s ZooTunes and Capitol Hill Block Party have wrapped up, but September brings a few more concerts to the Chateau Ste. Michelle lawn. Next up, Beck plays the Ride Lonesome tour in Woodinville.

The “Love Shack” party band joins forces with “Whip It” masterminds in a new wave party tour straight from the 1980s. Expect to dance, to sing along to nostalgic hits, and to stay enthralled with Devo’s artistic antics. 

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in the Broadway story of Harry Potter’s son. Spellbinding magic, epic battle scenes, and fantastical time travel bring the Tony Award-winning play to life in Seattle’s historic Paramount Theatre.

Following up this year’s Hamnet craze, Shakespeare’s most legendary tragedy comes to the Union Arts Center stage. Performance and reality meld for Hamlet in the wake of his father’s murder; for audiences, opening night brings an hour-long pre-show celebration.

Ballard’s independent theater is a master of the throwback; a weekly series brings nostalgic favorites back to the big screen. Next up, nearly four-hour-long Lawrence of Arabia takes audiences on an adventure.

Euro summer comes to SIFF by way of a series that centers the women of the 1960s’ French New Wave cinematic era: actresses like Jeanne Moreau, Anna Karina, Brigitte Bardot, and Delphine Seyrig; writer-director Agnès Varda. Screenings at SIFF include remarks from film curators and professors for an introspective, deep-thinking series.

PNW filmmakers fill the screens at Capitol Hill’s jewel box of a theater for the annual Local Sightings fest. Shorts and features span the run, with documentary Dad Genes making its West Coast premiere and a director chat with August Detering of Life in the Sound.

Can an octopus host a happy hour? On Seattle Aquarium’s view-laden Pier 59 deck, anything is possible. The aquarium’s after hours series boasts a chance for those 21-plus to explore touch tanks, giant underwater habitats, and science-y displays without kiddos around. Beer and baskets of fish and chips, though, will be in attendance. 

No training necessary for this marathon. The annual Walk Don’t Run showcase takes over downtown Seattle with a mix of art, music, and performance. The Seattle Symphony brass orchestra quintet plays, Undercurrent dancers move as one organism, and Corbie Leiker’s textile art invites hands-on play.

Over four acres of food grows next to Beacon Hill’s Jefferson Park in a community-stewarded food forest; the plot’s annual harvest fest brings music, an artisan market, and a cider press to pair with the hyper-local produce. Like what you see? Every third Saturday brings an open-invite work party tending to the grounds. 

After a summer hiatus, school is back in session at the First Hill art house. Frye does more than display artworks; they’re diving deep with another monthly lecture series helmed by art historian Rebecca Albiani, and in September, class kicks off by looking into works and movements born from the storied Studio Museum in Harlem.

Fandom reaches the kitchen in Chelsea Cole’s new release: an (unofficial, of course) Fourth Wing cookbook. At Book Larder, the author will demo recipes that feel like transporting to the Basgiath War College, and trivia will test superfans’ series knowledge. 

Seattle’s renowned chefs rotate through guest spots at nonprofit FareStart, each bringing a tailored three-course menu. The dinners, from cooked by folks like Rachel Yang and the Nguyen siblings behind Ba Sa and Ramie, routinely sell out weeks before the tasting menus make it to the table.