Tons of fun for the young under Bumbershoot's umbrella

Bumbershoot is about music, of course, but it's also about every other kind of performance you can imagine, from dance and comedy to film and literary and visual arts. And, if you're a kid, it's also about face painting, arts and crafts, learning about clay animation, science and doing the limbo.

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"Overall, there's so much to do that would satisfy people of almost every age," senior programming manager Bob Redmond said. "We tend not to say, 'This is appropriate for 10-year-olds or for 15-year-olds.' It's just such a grand spectacle. There are only a couple of things that are actually adult specific."

While there are areas and performers specifically geared toward young children, Redmond says the entire festival is a feast for a child's eyes and ears. Just watching an elephant ear being made, listening to a busker or playing in the fountain can be enough to keep young ones entertained for hours.

But if you're looking for a special place just for children ages 10 and under, head to the Center House and the Sound Transit Kids Pavilion. There, kids can create special arts and crafts, help with a clay animation movie, race tricycles, bounce on hippity-hop balls and learn all about transportation.

"It doesn't sound very sexy, but for kids, if you start talking about trucks and planes and rocket ships, they're excited," Redmond said. "This is probably the best place for people with small children to give them some focused activity."

Radio Disney will be there, too, giving dancing and limbo lessons. Mud Up!, an environmental coalition, will oversee a painting project.

Redmond thinks one of the performances children will love the most is Australia's Strange Fruit on the International Fountain Lawn (three shows each day). The Melbourne-based performing-arts group uses 15-foot-high flexible poles to bend and sway in the air, fusing circus, theater and dance.

"They basically invented a way to do acrobatic dance in the air. It's really elegant," Redmond said. "They were inspired by the swaying of wheat fields. It's not like circus performers; there's no way to compare them to dance on the stage."

Here are a few other kid-specific highlights for the weekend: