The History of Seaprog

The seeds of the crazy idea of staging a music festival in Seattle were planted by Dennis Rea at Zero-G shows in 2011 and 2012, but it wasn't until John Reagan brought the energy to actually work on it that things started to take shape. The initial idea was to spotlight the great Seattle-area artists creating really interesting music of different kinds, all related in some way to the idea of "progressive rock."

For a listing of all artists from all years, click here.

Seaprog 2019

Troot, Seaprog 2019, Columbia City Theater Main Stage, 7 June, 2019. L-R: Tim Root, Steve Ball, Julie Slick, Beth Fleenor, Alessandro Inolti, Samantha Boshnack, Tobi Stone, Bill Horist, Marco Machera (almost), Alina To photo by Photo by D. Davis
The sixth festival of progressive and avant rock took place June 7-9, 2019, and was the most successful event so far. Musicians from Sweden, Italy, Chicago, and California joined a host of local talent to present three days of amazing music.

Seaprog 2018

Free Salamander Exhibit, Seaprog 2018, Columbia City Theater Main Stage, 2 June, 2018. Dan Rathbun photo by D. Davis
The fifth festival took place June 1-3, 2018 at the Columbia City Theater in Seattle. With our new non-profit status affiliated with Shunpike and the biggest attendance in our history, Seaprog 2019 was the most successful edition yet.

Seaprog 2017

Cabezas de Cera, Seaprog 2017, Columbia City Theater Main Stage, 3 June, 2017. Mauricio Sotelo photo by D. Davis
The fourth installment of Seattle's festival of art and progressive rock happened June 2 - 4, 2017 at the Columbia City Theater and Royal Room in Seattle's Columbia City. Artists from around the Northwest, California, New York, and Mexico made another spectacular weekend of diverse music.

Seaprog 2015

Debora Petrina, Seaprog 2015, Columbia City Theater Main Stage, 9 August, 2015 photo by D. Davis
The third installment of Seattle's festival of art and progressive rock took place August 7-9, 2015. Friday evening at the Royal Room was a great success, and Saturday and Sunday at the Columbia City Theater featured an amazing variety of music. Two international artists, Debora Petrina from Italy and Nik Turner from England, augmented our usual assortment of local talent. MoeTar came in from California, and even Kingston, Washington was represented.

Seaprog 2014

Jim Bartz, Seaprog 2014, Columbia City Theater Front Room, 21 June, 2014. Jim Bartz photo by D. Davis

The second installment of Seaprog took place June 20-22, again with the Friday night event at the Royal Room and Saturday and Sunday at the Columbia City Theater. Thanks to some financial assistance from le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the long-running Canadian band Miriodor provided a solid anchor for the festival.

Once again, variety was the theme, with examples from most of the streams of progressive music, including RIO, jazz fusion, space rock, progressive metal, zeuhl, psychedelic, and more. The Northwest was well represented by The Mercury Tree (Portland), Fang Chia (Tacoma), and several bands from Seattle. Corima came up from Los Angeles to fill in the rest of the West Coast.

Seaprog 2013

Bill Horist, Seaprog 2013, Columbia City Theater Front Room, 30 June, 2013. Bill Horist photo by D. Davis
Organized by Seattle musicians, the inaugural edition of Seaprog, a curated festival showcasing up-to-the-minute progressive/avant rock by regional and internationally prominent bands, took place Friday-Sunday June 28-30 at the historic Columbia City Theater, with the Friday kickoff event at the Royal Room.