Blog Summary:

• Waterfront Park’s first Grand Opening Season welcomed millions of visits, signaling its arrival as a true everyday gathering place for Seattle, region and beyond.

• Free, community-centered programs and partnerships brought culture, accessibility, and belonging to life across all 20 acres.

• With the Park now complete, Friends of Waterfront Park is focused on long-term stewardship—caring for this place and the people who make it thrive.

There are moments when a place shifts from being new to being known. When it stops feeling like a destination you visit once and starts feeling like somewhere you return to—on purpose, and often.

That’s what this summer felt like at Waterfront Park.

From May through September 2025, Seattle’s waterfront wasn’t just opened—it was lived in. Neighbors came down on lunch breaks. Families lingered after school. Visitors passing stumbled upon performances (and stayed awhile), met up with friends, or simply sat by the water and take it all in. Over the course of four months, Waterfront Park welcomed 2.4 million unique visitors and logged 3.2 million total visits, a clear sign that this new civic space has already woven itself into the rhythm of the city.

For Friends of Waterfront Park, the Grand Opening Season was both a celebration and a beginning: a first look at how this place would show up in people’s everyday lives.

A Park That Belongs to the City and its People

One of the clearest stories the data tells is how deeply local this place already feels.

Most visits came from close to home—61% from Washington State residents (1.9 million), with nearly a quarter from Seattleites themselves (747,203). In fact, about 375,000 Seattle residents—nearly half the city—visited Waterfront Park during the Grand Opening Season, averaging two visits each. At the same time, visitors from across the Puget Sound region and beyond made their way to the shoreline, supporting downtown recovery and reinforcing the waterfront as a destination for the whole region.

Taken together, those numbers reflect something Friends hoped for from the very beginning: a waterfront that isn’t just admired but used. A place that works just as well for a weekday stroll as it does for a once‑in‑a‑summer celebration.

What Happens When People Gather

Of course, numbers only tell part of the story. What really brought the park to life this summer was what happened there.

During the Grand Opening Season, Friends hosted 309 free public activations and welcomed more than 90,000 people to Friends‑led programs and events. These weren’t just events on a calendar—they were moments of shared experiences that reflected Seattle’s cultures, creativity, and communities.

From the energy of the Waterfront Park Grand Opening Celebration, which drew more than 41,000 people, to deeply rooted cultural gatherings like Salmon Homecoming, Africatown Soul on the Water and Indigiqueer Festival, the season made room for many ways of showing up. Weekly offerings like free fitness classes and our Spotlight at Waterfront Park performance series helped ensure that the Park felt animated every day.

Behind each of these moments was a wide network of collaborators. In total, Friends partnered with 202 artists, cultural organizations, vendors, and community groups, nearly half of whom were new partners. Eighty‑two percent of those partners were BIPOC‑led, reflecting Friends’ ongoing commitment to programming that mirrors the diversity, stories, and community leadership of Seattle itself.

A Boost for Local Businesses

The Grand Opening Season also marked the new ways Waterfront Park will support local entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Through the Waterfront Park Market in partnership with Northwest Marketplaces and food vending programs, 68 vendors and 11 food and snack businesses operated across the Park, many serving daytime visitors and downtown workers. Eighty percent of participating businesses identified as BIPOC‑ or women‑owned, and across all vending programs, local businesses earned an estimated $2.5 million in aggregated revenue.

These early results underscore Friends’ belief that a thriving public space can and should contribute to a thriving local economy.

Designing for Access and Care

From the start, Friends approached the Grand Opening Season with a clear intention: this Park should be welcoming in practice, not just in principle.

Major events featured ASL interpretation and free sensory tents with additional pilots—including accessibility tours and braille signage—introduced throughout the season. These efforts are part of a broader, evolving approach to accessibility that recognizes inclusion as an ongoing practice rather than a finished checklist. Together, these patterns paint a picture of a park that supports many kinds of use: gathering, resting, celebrating, and simply passing through.

The scale and spirit of Waterfront Park’s first summer make one thing clear: building the Park was only the first chapter.

As the nonprofit entrusted with stewarding this place, Friends of Waterfront Park is focused on what comes next—keeping the Park safe, clean, welcoming, and alive with activity; deepening partnerships with community organizations and artists; and ensuring Waterfront Park continues to grow as a place where people feel a sense of belonging.

Note: Visitor counts reflect Placer.ai data for Waterfront Park in from May 1 through September 30, 2025, which excludes international visitors and estimated visitation for minors using current available Census data.