While Matt Meyer attended the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in 2024, he started to notice the way the huge crowds were traveling to ONE Spokane Stadium. Looking out toward Riverfront Park, he could see how one space could be a natural amphitheater; not far from there, he saw another that would be perfect for a food court.
Meyer, the director of entertainment for the Spokane Public Facilities District (PFD), had been thinking of creating a music festival in Spokane since 2017, when the final notes from his previous festival, Tinnabulation, or Tin Fest, rang out. As he saw all the pieces had fallen into place within the footprint of the public venues the PFD manages, a plan began to take shape.
Now it’s real: Blessing in Disguise is coming July 11 and will feature 20 artists covering all genres of rock on four downtown Spokane stages. Headlined by Macklemore, AJR, AWOLNATION and featuring the Inland Northwest’s own Allen Stone, Blessing in Disguise will link ONE Spokane Stadium, the Podium and the surrounding campus to create a hub of music, art, food and community.
“A lot of the people at Tin Fest were like, ‘This is great. Spokane needs this,’” Meyer says. “There was a lot of support and a lot of people wanting it. Now, with Blessing in Disguise, we’ve got a better venue within the stadium for the headliners, and we’ve got more infrastructure to throw an amazing festival right here. It’s going to be a really special day.”…