‘Blast Fest’ comes to Seattle for the first time

Blast Fest is coming to Seattle for the first time! It’s the brain child of a Microsoft techie by day, DJ by night.

“I moved to Seattle. I’m this kid born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and lived in Dallas, so I never had a shortage of culture around me. So I come to Seattle. I’m looking for hip hop, afrobeat, reggae, all this different type of music and I can’t find it. At first, it was a very difficult transition for me and somehow, someway, I was like how can I fix this?,” Founder and CEO of Blast Fest Bobby Akinboro said.

Akinboro started DJ’ing and brought more awareness to the Afrobeats music genre. The idea of an actual music festival came to him during the pandemic.

“There’s something really, really cool about watching something go from an idea to reality and seeing the city rally around it. Again when I announced it in April I didn’t know what it would look like, I was just excited to put out a new idea and people have consistently supported the idea and obviously, we’re watching the ticket sales and seeing people really excited,” Akinboro said.

Ticket sales have skyrocketed since announcing the festival lineup. Akinboro says they’ve had people all over the world from Brussels to Barcelona buy tickets to experience Blast Music Fest in Seattle this weekend.

July 29th will be a day filled with music, food trucks, black-owned businesses, and giveaways, all to amplify culture and create an unforgettable experience. The festival starts at 2 p.m. at Fischer Pavilion. You can buy tickets at blastmusicfest.com

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