Seattle Zine Fest is a one-day celebration of zines and DIY culture in Seattle. It will be occurring on July 7th, 2024, from 11am-5pm at 420 15th Ave E in Capitol Hill (the former QFC location).
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We love zines for their approachability -- art and distribution with a low barrier to entry. Almost anyone can make and distribute a zine and get their thoughts, their art, and their passions out to others.
Zines' flexibility and affordability have made them part of the lifeblood of DIY and fringe communities, and a home for nontraditional and "outsider art". In keeping with this ethos, Seattle Zine Fest is completely free to vend at and attend.
We want to make an unpretentious and approachable space for people here in Seattle to share your zines. We want anyone to feel invited to table; whether you've
got dozens of zines and events under your belt, or if you've been kicking around your first zine idea forever but are just now putting Sharpie to paper ahead of this event,
we hope you feel excited about vending and that the space is made for you. (Haven't tabled before and want tips or have questions? Shoot us an email in the top right corner!)
Seattle and the surrounding area is so lucky to be home to a really wonderfully rich culture of artists and communities and a rich history with zines -- we're so excited to see you all in July!
"A zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine."- "Zine" on Wikipedia
A zine can be about just about anything -- your personal manifesto, your favorite trail to walk on, your visual art or poetry (or both), the cats at your local convenience store. The only limit is your imagination. If you've never made a zine and want some pointers, here's a fun little simple write-up (though there's a lot more tips and tricks you can leverage). Also feel free to email us and we'd love to chat about your idea and how to put it to print!! The zine is a humble art form -- we encourage you to try and move past self-consciousness and just share things that feel meaningful or fun to you; self-expression for its own sake is beautiful, and even if you don't think it's much, if it meant something to you then it'll probably connect with someone else too!
Capitol Hill, Seattle! 420 15th Ave E, AKA the former QFC location. Address is a <15-minute walk from the Capitol Hill light rail station, or is right on the 10 bus line and a <5 minute walk from the 8 and 12.
We want a space for all the wonderful zines coming out of this area. There's a lot of great events in Seattle and nearby with a lot of overlap with Seattle Zine Fest, but we really felt the niche wasn't properly explored. Some similar events are expensive or difficult to vend at (and potentially unapproachable to a humble laserjet zinester), some have all kinds of art or a different focus, and others aren't focused on local art. Bremerton Zine Fest and Olympia Zine Fest are both excellent (and you should go!), but they can be challenging to get to for folks here. Additionally, we really wanted to highlight the really vibrant Seattle zine community, same as how those two Zine Fests highlight a lot of artists in their own local communities! We'd been feeling this lack for a while, and this year, with Short Run announcing a shift to Comix-only focus and the Oly Zine Fest doing a "Teeny-Tiny" event early in the year in lieu of their regular fest, it felt like the need was stronger than ever.
This event will be inside, so we are asking folks to please wear a mask. We'll have them available on-site as well! We care a lot about keeping our community safe, and also making this space as welcoming as possible to immunocompromised folks. Zines (especially by mail) have always helped serve folks who are physically-distanced from their communities, and that seems more apt than ever in the wake of the pandemic.
Lots of artists with their zines! In addition to artists' tables, we're planning on having a library of historical zines for folks to read (details TBA), as well as a workshop area for anyone to work on and kick around ideas for new zines. More exciting stuff to come!!
First of all, make sure you have enough of your zine!! If you need to run off copies, the Seattle Library offers black and white printing, or reach out to your friends and neighbors and see who's got a photocopier. Run off and fold a lot of your zine -- I'd say more than you expect to distribute (it's not like they go bad); if you are worried about folding too many, you can always print extras and fold them on-site if you're running low. Additionally, decide how you want to distribute your zine -- what price you want to sell them for, if you want to sell them at a fixed-price or sliding scale (or give them away or swap them!). We also recommend running off a small sign or tag with your name and/or social media on it to have on your table, and you can even have business cards if you want to send them home with folks.
Absolutely!! We'll have a table with free zines on it folks can leave zines on, but you're also more than welcome to carry them around and give them to folks. Many zinesters may also be interested in swapping -- though don't take it personally if anyone isn't -- a lot of times folks come away from these fests with more than they can read by the time next year rolls around! And all this said, we know tabling can be intimidating but really want it not to be -- we'd love to encourage folks to try tabling even if it's your first time, and you can always table for only part of the event. If there's anything you're worried about, ask away!
