This month, CityStream visits the Fairmont Olympic Hotel and the 48th Festival of Trees. We take in this year’s stunning collection of hand-crafted trees and show what it takes for volunteers to create a festival that raised more than $1.1 million in 2025. We also go inside the Seattle Fire Department’s rigorous New Recruit School, where every new hire trains for any and every real-world emergency. Finally, we visit the Seattle Symphony’s Young Composers Workshop, where musicians 18 and under create bold electroacoustic pieces using everything from typewriters to chihuahuas to crinkling paper.

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