Seattle International Children's Festival records, 1986-2011

The Seattle International Children’s Festival (SICF) premiered in May 1987 at the Seattle Center as part of a civic effort to make the city more child-friendly. It grew to an annual seven-day event, including a satellite mini-festival in Tacoma that featured performances of live theatre, circus arts, music, dance, and puppetry aimed at audiences from toddlers to young adults. Performing artists from around the world including Iraq, Israel, New Zealand, Mexico, Burkina Faso, Canada, Australia, Scotland, Spain, Senegal, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Mongolia, Rwanda, Vietnam, India, China, Korea, Germany, The Netherlands. Artists from around the Pacific Northwest and across the country, as well as artists from the Tlingit and Sioux nations performed at the Festival. Many festival offerings were world premiere commissions and first-U.S. tours. During a festival run five to fifteen shows were performed daily to an audience composed primarily of students on school field trips from across Washington state and a series of evening and weekend performances for the general public, reaching over 200,000 children during its 25-year run. SICF collaborated with community partners including the Jackson School of International Studies to create educational materials for teachers to use festival programming as a springboard for classroom activities. In 2010, SICF rebranded itself as Giant Magnet and continued for two more years before ceasing operation in 2011.

Source: Donor communication, annual reports and marketing materials found in collection. Seattle’s Child (2011)(https://www.seattleschild.com/seattle-international-childrens-festival-2011/), Seattle Times (2011).