The two-day Freakout Weekender returned to Belltown on March 2-3, 2024. The Weekender is a short-and-sweet version of Freakout‘s four-day fall festival, which includes a diverse selection of legacy artists, emerging and established Seattle groups, and bands from Latin America. It offers an ideal opportunity to explore new music.
Held across four stages within the Crocodile building and the nearby Belltown Yacht Club, the festival featured about 30 musical acts. Saturday leaned punk-heavy, and Sunday included more psych-rock and electronic options. As always, the the Mad Alchemy Analog Liquid Light Show visually enhanced the mainstage shows with trippy visuals.
The crowd showed up ready for some rowdy fun, and artists were happy to oblige—resulting in moshing, crowdsurfing, and flying drinks. It was a great party as much as it was a live-music event. A few shows were stuffed to capacity, but most were comfortably well-attended and energetic. The only quibble was a cascading delay that scrambled schedules and pushed back Sunday set times by an hour. Freakout events celebrate the physicality and community of live music, and the Weekender successfully gathered many subcultures under its psychedelic umbrella.
See some Weekender highlights below, plus full photo galleries for each day. The annual Freakout Festival will return to Ballard November 7-10, 2024. — Editor’s Note: Click here to view previous Freakout Festival coverage.