Bumbershoot crowd was smaller, but thirstier

Bumbershoot was a sunny success last weekend, but The Seattle Times' BumberBlog team noticed there seemed to be fewer people attending. Not that we were complaining — the Capitol Hill Block Party filled our "overcrowded festival" quota this summer — but were we right?

"The numbers are slightly down from last year," said Michele Scoleri, executive and artistic director of the festivals division at One Reel, the local nonprofit behind Bumbershoot. She said attendance this year was about 142,000, and last year's was close to 150,000. "But it looks like alcohol sales were actually up."

A nagging question: Why did the Monotonix concert at Seattle Center's Exhibition Hall get shut down after just 15 minutes? According to One Reel public-relations manager Jennifer Orr, who got back to us in an e-mail: "The Seattle Fire Marshal stopped the Monotonix performance early due to Seattle Center's no-crowd-surfing policy."

Yes, people crowd-surfed all weekend at Memorial Stadium, but that's not part of Seattle Center, and according to Orr, "One Reel does not prohibit crowd-surfing."

After Monotonix was told of the Seattle Center rules, "the artist then chose to crowd-surf in a garbage can, causing the early end of the performance."

Andrew Matson: 206-464-2153 or amatson@seattletimes.com