Northwest Folklife is proud to announce the full schedule for the 2018 Northwest Folklife Festival, presented by Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and scheduled for May 25-28, 2018 (Memorial Day Weekend). For 47 years, the Northwest Folklife Festival has been Seattle’s traditional kick-off to summer, bringing up to 250,000 people to the grounds of Seattle Center in the heart of the city. For all these years, Northwest Folklife has been committed to keeping the festival open with access for all, no tickets and no gates.

On May 11th, Round Records will release its most ambitious project to date with the long-awaited Jerry Garcia boxed set Before The Dead. The project features a meticulously researched and curated compilation of recordings the iconic Grateful Dead founder made prior to forming the legendary band. Before The Dead includes never before heard performances, recordings that have never been commercially released and a small selection that have.

On Modern Lore, Julian Lage's second studio recording with his trio, the composer and guitarist focuses on the groove, building his melodies and solos around the work of the prodigious rhythm section of double bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Modern Lore finds Lage playfully flipping the script he followed on his acclaimed 2016 Mack Avenue debut, Arclight.

R.E.M. frontman and multimedia artist Michael Stipe will return to Moogfest this year to debut his new multimedia installation, Thibault Dance, the second in a series of audio-visual pieces created exclusively for the festival. Thibault Dance was shot by Stipe in New York City and features French dancer and researcher Thibault Lac, whose movements were then set to an original score created by Stipe.

"This has been coming a long time," he states. "Anyone who has been to the shows over the past couple of years have noticed that I've been out front less and less. The shows have been great!"  Truth be told it's never really been about me," he continues. "It's always been about the music and the band. That's the real P-Funk legacy. They'll still be funkin long after I stop."

Upcoming tour dates:

The Rock and Roll Playhouse, a family concert series hosted at Brooklyn Bowl, The Capitol Theatre, Industry City, Ardmore Music Hall, The Sinclair, Thalia Music Hall, and the Boulder Theater allows kids to “move, play and sing while listening to works from the classic-rock canon” (NY Times). Using the songs created by the most iconic musicians in rock history, The Rock and Roll Playhouse offers its core audience of babies and kids games, movement, and stories and an opportunity to rock out.