Kirkland's Umbrella Fringe Festival is coming back for its second year, running from September 25 to 27, 2026, and this time the celebration is spilling out of downtown and into Totem Lake Village. Billed as the city's “Art Everywhere” celebration, the festival will once again turn sidewalks, parks, and public spaces into pop-up stages for music, theater, visual art, comedy, and experimental performances.
According to a news release from the City of Kirkland, the festival draws on the legacy of the original Edinburgh Fringe. That lineage runs deep: the global fringe model traces back to 1947, when eight uninvited theatre troupes showed up to perform on the margins of the first Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland, establishing the unjuried, open-access framework that fringe festivals worldwide still follow, according to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. The Pacific Northwest has its own claim to that history, too — the Seattle Fringe Festival, founded in 1991, was the first fringe festival established in the United States, per Wikipedia.
A Second Year, A Bigger Footprint
Kirkland's inaugural Umbrella Fringe Festival launched in 2025, running October 3 to 5 and kicking off at the Kirkland Performance Center before spreading to Moss Bay Hall, Kirkland Urban, and Peter Kirk Park, per the City of Kirkland. For 2026, organizers are adding Totem Lake Village to the mix, extending the festival's reach into one of Kirkland's fastest-growing commercial and residential hubs. The neighborhood has already become a canvas for civic creativity, with bodies like the Kirkland Cultural Arts Commission integrating public art initiatives such as utility box wraps and murals into the area, according to the City of Kirkland.
Kirkland Arts Center Executive Director David Lynx said the festival is growing after last year's success and has an exciting lineup of musicians, performers, and other artists, per the city's release. Lynx took the helm of Kirkland Arts Center in December 2023, arriving with more than two decades of Washington state arts administration experience, including 11 years directing the Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley College and five years leading the Sheehan Gallery at Whitman College, according to Kirkland Rotary.
Who's Footing the Bill
The festival is funded in part by a grant from the City of Kirkland's Tourism Development Committee, drawing on the city's Explore Kirkland tourism program. That program is funded by lodging tax collected from Kirkland hotels, motels, and short-term rentals — specifically a 1 percent lodging excise tax authorized under Revised Code of Washington 67.28, which evaluates grant applicants partly on their ability to attract visitors from more than 50 miles away and generate overnight hotel stays. Hoodline previously reported that the city's Explore Kirkland grant deadline was extended to August 18, 2025, for events aimed at driving those overnight stays. Beyond Umbrella Fringe, the same tourism program has awarded funding to Kirkland Summer Concerts, the Junior League Softball World Series, Kirkland Uncorked, and Pride Across the Bridge.
Deputy Mayor Neal Black said Fringe showcases local talent, creates spaces for community connection, and attracts visitors to Kirkland, according to the city's release. That framing puts the festival at the intersection of two goals the city has pursued in parallel: boosting tourism revenue and giving homegrown artists a platform.
Where the Money Goes
Unlike a typical civic festival, Umbrella Fringe channels its evening ticket revenue directly back to the artists performing, rather than into festival overhead, according to the Kirkland Arts Center's event page. Organizers describe the festival as encouraging independent, original, and experimental work, and say it gives Kirkland residents and visitors alike a chance to experience local artists' output firsthand.
The 2026 lineup already includes “The Blue Rose,” a psychedelic dance film inspired by David Lynch, and “What's A Blerd?”, a multimedia musical performance exploring the intersection of Black culture and nerd culture, per Kirkland Arts Center. Full schedules, lineup details, venue maps, and ticket purchases will be available through the Kirkland Arts Center's Umbrella Fringe page as the festival approaches.
A Landmark Host Building
The organization behind it all, Kirkland Arts Center, has its own layered history in the city. It was founded in 1962 as the Creative Arts League and now operates out of the Victorian Romanesque Peter Kirk Building, constructed in 1889 by city founder Peter Kirk and recognized as the oldest commercial building on Seattle's Eastside, according to the Kirkland Arts Center. Local citizens saved the building from demolition decades ago, and it now anchors the same organization staging pop-up performances across downtown and, this year, Totem Lake Village.
Media inquiries about the festival can be directed to David Wolbrecht, the city's communications program manager, who served as the media contact for the news release. With the September dates approaching, the festival's expansion into Totem Lake marks the clearest sign yet that Kirkland intends Umbrella Fringe to keep growing well beyond its downtown roots.
