In the summer of 2014 we had the pleasure to join some Portland friends and go to an absolutely chill and awesome music festival located just outside of Portland, known as
Pickathon. Now I know that it’s already too late, and you have assumed this is some kind of bluegrass festival, but
back it up a second. I made that misjudgment as well, based on the name, and while it may have been something like that in its early years, it has matured into an amazing festival showcasing a range of music and pulling some excellent bands
While there isn't much out-there as far as coverage of Pickathon, (and certainly nothing of the caliber of
this blog), here are few good articles about the festival:
This interview gives a good overview of the festival vibe.
This article discusses Pickathon and has coverage of the 2013 festival.
This 2014 line-up video has a good visual representation of the festival.
The Stages
The festival grounds are made up of a large camping area of trails meandering up into the forest, and the main venue area where most of the stages are located. The stages are quite unique and provide for interesting and different crowd experiences. Many of the stages provide for an incredibly intimate feel (especially for a festival).
The appropriately-named
Woods Stage is nestled up in the forest within the camping area, and is a beautiful and visually awesome venue. Large enough for a big-name artist to play, but small enough for an intimate-feeling show. This stage is really cool.
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| The Barr Brothers playing the Woods Stage (from Pickathon 2012) (I did not take this photo: photo by John Keel) |
In a bit of genius, the
Mt View and Fir Meadows Stages are placed right next to each other, and act as the main stage, allowing one act to setup while another plays right next to it, keeping the music flowing. Clever.
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| The main stages: Mt View and Fir Meadows |
The Starlight Stage is located near the food trucks but also a bit too close to the main stage, so if the schedule has overlap, the sound does too.
There are 2 indoor venues inside barns on farm. The Galaxy Barn is small and intimate venue to see a band, if you are willing to brave the crowds and the heat. This barn could use a bit more ventilation, as it was unbearably hot and overpacked. But that is to be expected when you can see bands like The War on Drugs in such a tiny venue.
Here is an interesting short 8-minute documentary on the design and construction of the very cool Treeline Stage (of 2014)
Festival food is provided by a plethora of delicious Portland food trucks. All of which are incredible! Portland has awesome food trucks. And the food is not ridiculously overpriced, just regular food truck prices (so only a little overpriced).
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Some hungry festival-goers at the food trucks,
but the only one you need to know about is Pine State! (one of our favorite Portland eateries) |
In a very successful campaign to curb waste/garbage, the festival uses only reusable custom-labeled festival-swag steel cups which you can purchase, or you can use your own reusable container. They also have a genius dish-trade system, in which you essentially buy access to dinner-ware, which you can drop off to be washed, in trade for a token. When you buy your next meal, you just trade the token for the dinner-ware. Then at the end of the festival you make the final trade of the token for a clean set to take home as festival swag! All of the dinner-ware is very nice, high quality, festival merch that you essentially rent, and then get to keep! And it saves literally tons of garage from being generated. It is very convenient, simple, worthwhile, and easy movement to get behind. Seriously genius!
2015 edition of the official Pickathon dinner-ware: Plate-bowl, fork-spoon, and Klean Kanteen® stainless steel cup.
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| Tess enjoying a Pine State Biscuit |
The Festival
The festival grounds are beautiful, secluded, and forested. You cannot beat camping in the woods, which is something that is unfortunately fairly rare to find at festivals. This is the type/size festival that can still pull-off campfires within the venue grounds, which is cool and rare at festivals (campfires are restricted in the camping area). The festival is family and kid friendly. It even has a entire dedicated area for kids activities and entertainment. There is also a night-life feel to the festival in the evenings, but not as much of late-late-night vibe as many other much larger festivals.
All of this is just like a 20-30 minute drive from Portland, making its proximity absurdly convenient for that city. The festival grounds are so beautiful and you feel so secluded from society that it could easily seem like you journeyed 5 hours to get there, but when Portlanders are done with the awesome weekend, they simply pack-up, and are back home in 20 mins! Absurd. I don’t know of any other outdoor camping festival that is that easy/convenient to any city.
The Music
The lineup of the 2014 festival was pretty solid. Here is what I remember seeing. (I'm sure there were others, that I have forgotten.)
[This blog-post was written long after the festival, so I’m sorry to say that I don’t really remember too much about the music. Here is what I do recall.]
The War on Drugs
They put on 2 excellent sets. I caught the Woods Stage set, which was an awesome venue to see them. Their performance, their music, and the venue were far better than the lack-luster performance on the normal stage in the middle of the day at Sasquatch 2012). I then watched the Galaxy Barn set on the screens from outside, which was also very enjoyable. This band, and their new album are such good-listening.
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| The War on Drugs |
Mac DeMarco
I caught the Woods Stage set, and it was a good show. You could tell that Mac was having a good time. He did some crowd surfing which got the crowd excited.
Foxygen
I was so excited about this band, given how awesome their 1st album was, but their performances were so crappy. They were washed-up, cheesy, awkward, and just pathetic. They had 3 backup singers which was cool, but their shows were just disappointing. A friend of mine, who also caught one of their shows at another unrelated venue had a similar take on their performance, maybe that is just the way the way it is.
Those Darlins
I love this band, but this show was fairly disappointing. I guess they were focusing on a new album, because I didn’t recognize the songs. Towards the end they played “Red Light Love”, and it turned into a full out dance-off. Apparently I wasn't the only one waiting to hear the old stuff. They were very much the people I expected/wanted them to be.
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Those Darlins looking the part: all trashy and sexy.
(Note in this picture everyone is sitting down, and calmly enjoying the tunes.)
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The end of the Those Darlins set.
Now note that here everyone is on their feet, dancing a jig.
This is when they played “Red Light Love”.
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Destroyer (solo)
I caught this very intimate set on the very small Treeline Stage and it was enjoyable. I don’t know a lot about Destroyer’s solo music, but he was pulling out the deep-cuts, according to what he was saying.
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| Destroyer ... (Destroying it.) |
The Sadies
I caught most of their Galaxy Barn performance on the screens from outside, hanging out in the grass, enjoying the scenery, and I recall that their overall stage-presence, outfit aesthetic and sound was enjoyable.
Nickel Creek
Tess knew and loved this band in days past. I have no knowledge of them. But I recall that this show was good, and they seem talented.
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| Our view (or lack-there-of) of Nickel Creek |
Quilt
I remember this being enjoyable enough to try to remember to look them up further.
Leroy Thomas & The Zydeco Roadrunners
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| Leroy Thomas & The Zydeco Roadrunners |
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| Festival-goers at the Woods Stage |
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| Random life-size elephant statue on the grounds |
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I LOVE these awesome things hanging in the trees, illuminating the pathway into the woods.
SO cool.
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| Festival-goers at the Main Stage(s) |
Summary
This is an awesome festival, in a beautiful setting, super-conveniently located to an awesome fun city. It pulls excellent bands, and it is ever-growing into the prime festival, drawing better and better line-ups. It is not (yet) too big or too crowded. It is accessible, relaxed, and fun. The mentality and the vibe of the festival-organizers and festival-goers is just right. It may be damn near the perfect festival.
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I am a fan of art installations at music festivals.
you cannot have enough! |
