The whimsy of day one was just a warm up for the fun and games of Bumbershoot day two, featuring performances from J. Cole, T-Pain, Young Thug and others.
The day started off with “Yogashoot,” an open yoga session at the Mural Amphitheatre Stage. Demonstrations of glass blowing, pottery wheel lessons and bandana screen printing unfolded behind the Sub Pop pop-up shop.
AJR played at the Memorial Stadium Main Stage for a notably young crowd. The band seemed to have quit their set early and unexpectedly, with nearly 20 minutes left on the schedule, leaving many confused. Some festival-goers remarked how “unprofessional” it was to have finished so abruptly. As the stadium quickly emptied, AJR re-emerged to perform two more songs on a visually plain and unlit stage, an apparent effort to work with the technical difficulties.
After AJR, Young Thug took the Main Stage 20 minutes later than scheduled, but it wasn’t clear as to whether or not that was related to the technical difficulties that AJR had experienced earlier on. Even still, Young Thug had to stop in the beginning of his performance due to what seemed like stage malfunctions, bringing some confusion to the festival-goers. Past the somewhat rocky beginning, Young Thug hyped up the audience, inspiring dance circles and mosh pits to erupt throughout the crowd.
Superorganism performed on the Fisher Green stage in the afternoon. The eight-piece indie rock band consists of members Orono Nuguchi, Harry, Emily, Tucan, Robert Strange, Ruby, B and Soul. The London-based group walked on sporting colorful raincoats and glitter-coated cheekbones. With triangles in hand, the band paced around stage at first and the ringing of the tiny percussion instruments caught the attention of an amused — and confused crowd.
Cherry Glazerr performed an indie-punk set at the Mural Amphitheater, which was decorated with anthropomorphic paper-mache cherry women on each side. Lead singer and guitarist Clementine Creevy thrashed her hair around stage, squinting out into the sun. At the end of the eight song set, Creevy announced where she was headed next. “We’re going to play a few more songs then go smoke a joint that someone gave us in the green room.”
Canadian electropop duo Marian Hill played at the Fisher Green Stage just as the day cooled down. Vocalist Samantha Gongol began with the twosome’s popular song “Down,” a sultry hit equipped with slow, textured vocals and booming bass. Gongol danced to the beats created by her musical co-pilot Jeremy Lloyd, her blonde ponytail catching the purple stage lights as it whipped through the air.
T-Pain made it to his performance despite talk of the artist potentially missing it entirely. The rapper was reportedly stopped by airport officials for carrying a firearm at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. Though when he emerged on stage, he was greeted by an impressive crowd spilling out of the lawn in front of the Fisher Green stage.
EDM artist Fisher had a small but lively crowd in the Exhibition Hall, where much of the EDM artists are performing. The hall descends underground and has the look of an empty “CVS store” where the lights don’t touch, as described by security personnel. Yet, the feeling almost lends itself to an underground rave. Fisher closed with “Crowd Control,” then came to the barrier to greet his fans and sign autographs.
J. Cole closed out the night at the Main Stage with a personal performance. He opened with “Window Pain (Outro),” and also played favorites like “Power Trip” and “No Role Modelz”. At one point during the show, J. Cole talked about how history repeats itself while the screen behind him portrayed side-by-side images of Hitler and President Trump. Clouds of smoke billowed up from the audience and festival personnel walked up and down the catwalk stretching from the front of the stage to fan the audience and spray water. The night with J. Cole ended rather abruptly, but just as the crowd realized it was over, fireworks launched from behind the main stage, signaling the end of 2018 Bumbershoot day two.
MORE: View the full gallery from 2018 Bumbershoot day two
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