Nicknames
From 1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the "Queen City".[135] Seattle's current official nickname is the "Emerald City", the result of a contest held in 1981;[136][137] the reference is to the lush evergreen forests of the area. Seattle is also referred to informally as the "Gateway to Alaska" for being the nearest major city in the contiguous US to Alaska, "Rain City" for its frequent cloudy and rainy weather, and "Jet City"[137] from the local influence of Boeing. The city has two official slogans or mottos: "The City of Flowers", meant to encourage the planting of flowers to beautify the city, and "The City of Goodwill", adopted prior to the 1990 Goodwill Games.[138] Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.Performing arts
Main article: Arts in Seattle
The façade of Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center, seen from Kreielsheimer Promenade, with the Space Needle in the background
The 5th Avenue Theatre, built in 1926, stages Broadway-style musical shows[146] featuring both local talent and international stars.[147] Seattle has "around 100" theatrical production companies[148] and over two dozen live theatre venues, many of them associated with fringe theatre;[149][150] Seattle is probably second only to New York for number of equity theaters[151] (28 Seattle theater companies have some sort of Actors' Equity contract).[148] In addition, the 900-seat Romanesque Revival Town Hall on First Hill hosts numerous cultural events, especially lectures and recitals.[152]
Seattle Symphony Orchestra on stage in Benaroya Hall in Downtown Seattle. Benaroya has been the symphony's home since 1998.
Early popular musical acts from the Seattle/Puget Sound area include the collegiate folk group The Brothers Four, vocal group The Fleetwoods, 1960s garage rockers The Wailers and The Sonics, and instrumental surf group The Ventures, some of whom are still active.[153]
Seattle is considered the home of grunge music,[12] having produced artists such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Mudhoney, all of whom reached international audiences in the early 1990s.[153] The city is also home to such varied artists as avant-garde jazz musicians Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, hot jazz musician Glenn Crytzer, hip hop artists Sir Mix-a-Lot, Macklemore, Blue Scholars, and Shabazz Palaces, smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G, classic rock staples Heart and Queensrÿche, and alternative rock bands such as Foo Fighters, Harvey Danger, The Presidents of the United States of America, The Posies, Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, Death Cab for Cutie, and Fleet Foxes. Rock musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Duff McKagan, and Nikki Sixx spent their formative years in Seattle.
The Seattle-based Sub Pop record company continues to be one of the world's best-known independent/alternative music labels.[153]
Over the years, a number of songs have been written about Seattle.
Seattle annually sends a team of spoken word slammers to the National Poetry Slam and considers itself home to such performance poets as Buddy Wakefield, two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champ;[154] Anis Mojgani, two-time National Poetry Slam Champ;[155] and Danny Sherrard, 2007 National Poetry Slam Champ and 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champ.[156] Seattle also hosted the 2001 national Poetry Slam Tournament. The Seattle Poetry Festival is a biennial poetry festival that (launched first as the Poetry Circus in 1997) has featured local, regional, national, and international names in poetry.[157]
The city also has movie houses showing both Hollywood productions and works by independent filmmakers.[158] Among these, the Seattle Cinerama stands out as one of only three movie theaters in the world still capable of showing three-panel Cinerama films.[159]
Tourism
See also: Museums and galleries of Seattle
210 cruise ship visits brought 886,039 passengers to Seattle in 2008.[160]
Other significant events include numerous Native American pow-wows, a Greek Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Montlake, and numerous ethnic festivals (many associated with Festál at Seattle Center).[166]
There are other annual events, ranging from the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair & Book Arts Show;[167] an anime convention, Sakura-Con;[168] Penny Arcade Expo, a gaming convention;[169] a two-day, 9,000-rider Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic;[170] and specialized film festivals, such as the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival, the Seattle Asian American Film Festival (formerly known as the Northwest Asian American Film Festival), Children's Film Festival Seattle, Translation: the Seattle Transgender Film Festival, the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Seattle Latino Film Festival, and the Seattle Polish Film Festival.[171][172]
The Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, the first public art museum in Washington.[173] The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opened in 1933; SAM opened a museum downtown in 1991 (expanded and reopened 2007); since 1991, the 1933 building has been SAM's Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM).[174] SAM also operates the Olympic Sculpture Park (opened 2007) on the waterfront north of the downtown piers. The Frye Art Museum is a free museum on First Hill.
Regional history collections are at the Loghouse Museum in Alki, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, the Museum of History and Industry, and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Industry collections are at the Center for Wooden Boats and the adjacent Northwest Seaport, the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and the Museum of Flight. Regional ethnic collections include the Nordic Heritage Museum, the Wing Luke Asian Museum, and the Northwest African American Museum. Seattle has artist-run galleries,[175] including ten-year veteran Soil Art Gallery,[176] and the newer Crawl Space Gallery.[177]
Woodland Park Zoo opened as a private menagerie in 1889 but was sold to the city in 1899.[180] The Seattle Aquarium has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977 (undergoing a renovation 2006).[181] The Seattle Underground Tour is an exhibit of places that existed before the Great Fire.[182]
Since the middle 1990s, Seattle has experienced significant growth in the cruise industry, especially as a departure point for Alaska cruises. In 2008, a record total of 886,039 cruise passengers passed through the city, surpassing the number for Vancouver, BC, the other major departure point for Alaska cruises.[183]
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