MEDIA COVERAGE INTEREST FROM THE PRESS
Radio
The Festival was pleased to partner again with several local radio stations, reaching a wide demographic. All sponsor stations ran promotional spots before the event, including KUOW, KBCS, and— newly returning this year--KSER. NPR music affiliate KEXP devoted a special edition of the show “The Roadhouse” to the Festival Preview Party on April 25, with live performances by bands scheduled as part of our Indie Roots programming. Editorial coverage included an interview with programmer Michelle Demers-Shaevitz on the show “Get Active with Pat Pauley” that airs on Alternative Talk 1150 KKNW, and a live interview about the Cultural Focus, Washington Works, with Deputy Director Deborah Fant, followed by an in-studio musical performance, on NPR affiliate KUOW’s popular “Weekday” program. Programmers of the Washington Works series also appeared live on KBCS during the Music + Ideas show.
Print & Online
Northwest Folklife continued its partnership with The Seattle Times for both the production of the souvenir Festival guide and promotional support. The Times printed 235,000 copies of the guide, with half included as an insert in regional editions. The Times also wrote several feature-length stories and blog posts about the Festival and posted highlights and photo galleries online for each day of the event. Other notable print coverage included extensive previews from No Depression, ParentMap, The Everett Herald, The International Examiner, The SunBreak, and the alt-weeklies The Stranger and Seattle Weekly. Previews and calendar items were featured in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Alaska Airlines Magazine, iBuki Magazine, City Arts Magazine, and The Olympian. Online coverage included write-ups on the sites SeattleTrekker.com, About.com, KEXP.com, West Seattle Blog, Fresh Picked Seattle, and Downtown Seattle. This year we were pleased to have stories and profiles on niche and local sites that had not featured the Festival in recent years, including Jew-Ish.com, The News Tribune, Kingston Community News, Seattle Office of Film & Music, and Seattle Dances. Special follow-ups reflecting on the Festival events ran in the Seattle Times, Northwest Asian Weekly, Seattlepi.com, and at The Economist online. An ad ran in the Seattle Times after the Festival, thanking the community for their support and involvement.
Television
Northwest Folklife was pleased to have KCTS 9 as our primary television sponsor for the second year. KCTS 9, a local PBS affiliate, ran promotional spots about the Festival in the weeks leading up to the event. The station also spent an entire day on grounds collecting footage for a feature piece that will run this summer on the arts & culture program PIE. Other television sponsors included Univision-KUNS, and the Seattle Channel returned as a broadcast sponsor, airing segments from our Northwest Stories series to promote the Festival.