Boo Seattle 2024: tricks, treats, lasers, and beats for the Pacific Northwest

November 4, 2024

The 2024 edition of Boo Seattle continued to solidify the festival as a Halloween staple for the region, with massive headliners and scary-good production at every turn.

On a weekend that brought countless Halloween music festivals across the nation, Pacific Northwest ravers found their home at WaMu Theater for Boo Seattle. While the festival’s fourth edition at the venue brought a handful of tweaks to the set-up – an extra open staircase here, an extra bathroom there – it was immediately clear to a multi-time Boo-goer that Insomniac has found their stride with a reliable, functional lay-out. Despite packed crowds both nights, filling up a water pack or taking a bathroom break was nearly always a quick endeavor.

The mainstage – or rather, the Dark Forest – got its yearly makeover, becoming a massive wraparound of screens and lights reminiscent of EDC’s Circuit Grounds. The talent certainly lived up to that sense of grandeur, with a string of legends in Chris Lorenzo, Deorro, and Kaskade setting the stage for a smashing finale from Slander on day one. Day two did its best to top that, with Lost Frequencies, Crankdat, Afrojack, and Rezz teeing up the one and only Illenium.

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A short journey from the Dark Forest, the Den of Darkness played host to a wide variety of bass acts, ranging from the melodic – MiTiS, Ray Volpe, Ahee – to the demonic – Marauda, Hol!, Zomboy. Two up-and-coming British stars, Hamdi and Hedex, took the stage one after another on day one and brought the house down in a truly memorable stretch. Upstairs at the indoor-outdoor hybrid Lighthouse stage, a laundry list of house music talent headlined by Odd Mob, Mark Knight, and Biscits kept the good vibes flowing in an escape from the darkness.

Tucked away near the vendor village, a fourth stage could be found through a spider web-filled path – the silent disco. Fans trickled in and out all weekend long for a brief reprieve from the crowds and a little more space to boogie to their own beat. Just around the corner, a cozy space full of bean bags and candy welcomed in anyone that needed some extra relaxation time between sets.

As is always the case with Insomniac, the music was far from the only attraction at Boo Seattle 2024. If dancing wasn’t enough motion for you, two carnival rides – Zero Gravity and the Super Orbiter – were once again available for some extra stimulation. What better place to watch a mainstage set while being flung around every which way?

Anywhere you looked, an elaborately dressed character was working the crowd – ghosts, jesters, bats, cats, witches on stilts. The same could be said for art installations, with graves, spiders, skeletons, and moons around every corner. Of course, the fans created much of the ambiance as well with their costumes, perhaps the most popular of which was Doodlebob from Spongebob – seriously, there were at least twenty raving Doodlebobs.

Boo Seattle 2024 was a huge success for seasoned festival goers and Halloweekend newbies alike. As festival season hits its semi-official end, Pacific Northwest ravers will have these beautiful memories to look back on as they dream of the next one. Only two months until New Years!