Rock Lottery

Rock Lottery 10AM - 25 MUSICIANS... 10PM - 5 BANDS
25 + YEARS | 1K + MUSICIANS | 80K + RAISED FOR CHARITY ABOUT

The ROCK LOTTERY concept is simple, but effective.

Twenty-five musicians meet at 10:00AM at the evening’s performance venue. These volunteers are organized into five bands through a lottery based chance selection. The five different groups are then released to practice at different locations. The musicians have twelve hours to create a band name and three to five songs (with a one cover song limit.) The bands then return to the venue by 10:00PM an

d perform what they have created in front of a waiting audience. The twenty-five musicians included in this experiment are carefully selected to represent a wide variety of musical styles. This event will bring together many facets of the music community that may seem incompatible, as well as musicians whose interests may conflict. The challenge for these participants is to try and go beyond their personal and musical differences and work together to create a unified group project that contains the personal styles of each of its members. BACKGROUND

Instigated by Good/Bad Art Collective in 1997, the ROCK LOTTERY has become a highly anticipated music event throughout the United States. In addition to spawning official sister events in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Seattle, the RL concept has been emulated around the world with events in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus, Louisville, Ottawa ON, San Francisco, Washington DC, Victoria BC and Jeonju, South Korea. In its twenty-five year history, the three cities hosting an official ROCK LOTTERY have featured over 900 musicians and raised over 60K for charities as diverse as Arts Corps, CASA, Daniel's Music Foundation, Denton County African American Museum, Feel the Music, Friends of the Family, Harmony Program, KEXP, KUZU, Parkland HealthPlus Rockaway Renegades: Sandy Relief, Save Fry Street, The Vera Project and more. Musicians who have volunteered their time and talent over the last twenty years come from a variety of acclaimed national and international acts including Baptist Generals, David Bazan, Bedhead, Brave Combo, Brutal Juice, Built to Spill, Centro-matic, Corn Mo, The Dap-Kings, Father John Misty, Head and The Heart, Lenny Kaye, King Crimson, Lift to Experience, Sarah Jaffe, Damien Jurado, Midlake, Ministry, Mudhoney, Murder City Devils, My Morning Jacket, Oneida, Parquet Courts, Pinkish Black, Polyphonic Spree, Psychedelic Furs, The Rapture, The Roots, Riverboat Gamblers, Sarah Jaffe, Slobberbone, THEESatisfaction, Swans, They Might Be Giants, Toadies, True Widow, Mike Watt, Reggie Watts, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs among many others. For the twenty-five brave musicians involved in each ROCK LOTTERY, plus the event organizers, volunteers, venues and businesses, this busman’s holiday aims to inspire experimentation, collaboration, and community. Additional information, including participant contact information, press packs, and images are available upon request.

🚨 ATTENTION SEATTLE! 🚨
01/25/2026

🚨 ATTENTION SEATTLE! 🚨

Since 1997, this cowboy hat has randomly divided over 1,000 individual musicians into more than 200 brand new, one-night...
01/23/2026

Since 1997, this cowboy hat has randomly divided over 1,000 individual musicians into more than 200 brand new, one-night only bands.

THE SACRED ROCK LOTTERY HAT IS NEVER WRONG!

Experience this magic TOMORROW, January 24th at Seattle Rock Lottery 14 as a benefit for the Vera Project (ticket link in comments)

Seattle Rock Lottery 14 is next Saturday, January 24 at the Vera Project! Purchase your tickets now (see comments for li...
01/18/2026

Seattle Rock Lottery 14 is next Saturday, January 24 at the Vera Project! Purchase your tickets now (see comments for link)

In preparation for the big event, please revisit this fantastic article by Megan Seling, as a reminder that the Sacred Rock Lottery Hat Is never wrong, and about the magic of community, music, and creating something out of nothing.

They say the five most stressful life events are death, divorce, moving, major illness, and job loss. I told my husband if he divorced me, I would kill him.

SEATTLE ROCK LOTTERY 14 TICKETS ON SALE NOW!https://link.dice.fm/Tba881dae886ANNOUNCING THE RL14 MUSICIANS:Fredy Andrés ...
01/13/2026

SEATTLE ROCK LOTTERY 14 TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

https://link.dice.fm/Tba881dae886

ANNOUNCING THE RL14 MUSICIANS:

Fredy Andrés - ORQUESTA CAMBALACHE
Pam Barger - BILLY TIPTON MEMORIAL SAX QUARTET
Benny Drawbars - SEATTLE KRAKEN
Natasha El-Sergany - SOMESURPRISES
KIDDUS FECTO
Celeste Felsheim - KING SHEIM
Miranda Hardy - OK BUCKO
Brady Harvey - ACAPULCO LIPS
Benjamin Hunter - BEN HUNTER & JOE SEAMONS
Shred Jhala - GENDER ENVY
Katyrose Jordan - i///u
Henry Lavallee - NAKED GIANTS
Robbie Luna - RUB
Julia Massey - WARREN DUNES
Jak McKool - MEDIUM WEEKEND
MQULTRA - BREAKS AND SWELLS
Molly Nguyen - CHERUB CHAINS
Kirsten Ourada - BABYBOY
Crow Ross - MISCOMINGS
Martín Selasco - TERROR/CACTUS
Justin Tamminga - ASSERTION
Carlos Tulloss - AFROCOP
JASON WEBLEY
Matt Weiner - CLOUD DROPS
Aimee Zoe - STARGAZR

Live screen printing of SRL14 same-day band t-shirts by Vera's screen print committee!

ROCK LOTTERY 14 | 01/24/26 | THE VERA PROJECT | SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

All proceeds of RL14 benefit The Vera Project.

(The selected musicians were nominated by former Rock Lottery participants and an expert selection panel – Abe Claiborne, Alaia D'Alessandro, Augustin Vazquez, Christopher Walker, Jason Clackley, JJ Johnson, K Redden, Liv Lazaga, Ricky Graboski, and led by co-organizers Kathy Lindenmayer and Chris Weber.)

The Stranger covered the initial Rock Lottery participant announcement and shared this lovely photo of two of our favori...
12/06/2025

The Stranger covered the initial Rock Lottery participant announcement and shared this lovely photo of two of our favorite animal friends!

See you January 24, 2026 at The Vera Project for all new surprises and exciting collaborations!

Pop loser, you weekly music roundup.

THANKS SOPHIA CARBAJAL AND NTD!
11/23/2025

THANKS SOPHIA CARBAJAL AND NTD!

ARTS & LIFE: ‘Art in the moment’: Musicians perform original songs in 22nd annual Rock Lottery event

On Saturday evening, five bands who had never practiced together before that day performed in front of a sold-out crowd at Dan’s Silverleaf for the 22nd annual Rock Lottery on Nov. 15.

Rock Lottery is an event where 25 local musicians across all different styles, genres and backgrounds are paired into random groups of five, and are then given 12 hours to write and perform three to five songs. Chelsey Danielle, a local musician and host of Rock Lottery 22, said the concert offers musicians a chance to collaborate in unpredictable ways.

“What I love about it is that we are a community that is experiencing art in the moment,” Danielle said. “This will never happen again. These bands will never perform again.”

📝: Sophia Carbajal
📸: Sophia Carbajal

Read more: https://buff.ly/zRroQwD

11/20/2025

THANK YOU MURRY CHAVEZ AND DRC!

📸 MJL
11/18/2025

📸 MJL

¡RL22 - PAN ECTOR!
11/16/2025

¡RL22 - PAN ECTOR!

SHOULDA BEEN FASTER
11/16/2025

SHOULDA BEEN FASTER

11/16/2025

A free livestream of Rock Lottery will be available tonight for those who cannot attend. The stream will be live on our page, simply go to our page around 930 and you'll see it up. The stream is also available on YouTube. Search for on YouTube or look for the direct link in the comments.

The Livestream is free, but please consider donating to KUZU if you enjoy it.

(Livestream courtesy of Graham Rainer with Normal Street Productions)

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