With the return of the annual music festival Pickathon to Pendarvis Farm, Aug. 1-4, another year of music, art and curated experiences is just around the corner.
Twelve miles outside of Portland in Happy Valley, Pickathon has transported visitors through art and music at Pendarvis Farm since 2006, although the festival got its start as a fundraiser for the community radio station KBOO in 1999.
Earlier this year, Pickathon received a new 10-year land use permit from the Happy Valley Planning Commission, setting the stage for another decade of the festival. With its home secured, Pickathon has continued to nurture strong relationships with Clackamas County leaders and announced the new Pickathon Creative Neighborhoods nonprofit initiative this summer.
Pickathon continues to be a standout music festival in the Pacific Northwest with traditional and “glamping” options for visitors to sleep under the stars, a wide variety of musical styles, from bluegrass to soul, and a “leave no trace” sustainability mindset.
This year’s musical lineup features Courtney Barnett, Durand Jones, Bonnie Prince Billy, Kara Jackson, Geese, Elephant Revival, Vacations, Billie Marten, Adi Oasis, Bella White and many more.
Year after year, Pickathon celebrates the experience of discovering new artists and building community over four days.
Weekend tickets for adults are $415 and day passes are $205 for Friday and Sunday and $225 for Saturday. Weekend parking is $105, while single-day parking is $65. Tickets for kids 12 and under are free.
There is a free shuttle bus from Foster Road that loops all day during the festival. Pendarvis Farm is located at 16581 SE Hagen Rd Happy Valley.
To take a listen to a curated selection of this year’s Pickathon artists, listen to this Spotify playlist : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2iqNDTsV9VGbD6noEukbLx?si=3651e680fa4444fb&pt=4407c46eaf2f9b87140df3d261ef782a.
Pickathon Creative Neighborhoods
Pickathon’s new nonprofit initiative, Creative Neighborhoods, aims to bring the festival’s ethos of organic mentorship and community to everyone who walks through the gates.
In the future, the nonprofit will work to extend this education and mentorship beyond the summer months.
Executive Director Matt Wagner got his start at Pickathon eight years ago when founder Zale Schoenborn invited him to join the team as an artist and designer. For years, Wagner’s main project was the Galaxy Barn, the air-conditioned stage that transports audiences to outer space.
“Pickathon unlocked this side of me where it just feels good to help people, feels good to do something good,” said Wagner. “People tangentially come and see all these really cool art things, but they don’t really understand how much good went into this that wasn’t just somebody being paid to build something. Someone is putting their heart and soul into the installations at Pickathon.”
Instead of thinking about the different areas at Pickathon as “stages,” leaders eventually came to think of them as “neighborhoods.” This year there are 14 unique neighborhoods designed and built by a variety of volunteer teams.
There’s the Cherry Hill Neighborhood, designed by architecture students at Portland State University, and the Paddock Neighborhood, designed by Hoffman Construction and ZGF Architects, which will frame the main meadow of the festival.
“I think it's really transformed over the years into a much more well-oiled machine of figuring out how to make everybody benefit,” said Wagner. “Honestly, that's another reason the nonprofit came in because we thought we have this insane army of mentors, famous architects, designers, artists, builders, and I'm like, ‘Everybody out on the farm benefits from this. Every volunteer learns something. Why can't we structure this?’”
Pickathon Creative Neighborhoods aims to do just that. For its first year, the initiative will feature four programs during the festival.
In collaboration with Proud Mary, Coava and Guilder Coffee companies, the festival is hosting a coffee tech barista mentor program. Festival volunteers will staff four new coffee booths while representing the brands and learning coffee roasting and barista skills from experts.
The festival is also working with Benson High School’s video production program to produce a short documentary over the weekend as a “film camp.” The camp should help build experience and confidence for student filmmakers.
The other two programs also provide opportunities for engagement. At the sustainability kiosk, people can learn about two decades of sustainable history at Pickathon. The fourth program, the Windmill mural painting, will allow attendees to add their creativity to the community mural.
Wagner hopes to build new mentorship and education programs at the nonprofit each year and to eventually provide international and large-scale opportunities for the Pickathon community.
“Everything I'm doing right now for this year's festival, I'm relying on the kindness of people,” said Wagner, who hopes next year Creative Neighborhoods can teach students to design a section of one of the festival’s neighborhoods. “I would love to pay educators so that they can pass this stuff on.”
Curation for foodies and families
Every year Pickathon brings a little bit of magic to the woods above Cherry Hill in the family-focused Coyote Neighborhood.
This year’s family music lineup includes Lucy Kalantari & the Jazz Cats, folk-rocker Little Miss Ann, Mamma Coal and Portland’s own Norman Sylvester, who is bringing his blues-in-schools program to Pendarvis Farm.
The Coyote Neighborhood also features educational and childcare options for festival-goers, as well as the return of Trackers Earth, an organization that takes kids on wilderness explorations during the festival.
Pickathon also recently announced its lineup of food curation for this year’s festival, where the organizers pair a local chef with a musician or ensemble.
Chef Cameron Lee Dunlap of Morchella PDX will be paired with Dean Johnson on Friday. Lauren Breneman and John Boisse of Astral PDX, winners of Eater Portland’s Best Chef Residency award, will be paired with singer-songwriter Billie Marten on Saturday.
Chef Kelsey Miguel of Not Umami’s Cooking will be paired with electronic music producer Pahua on Saturday. Chef Luna Contreras of Chelo PDX will be paired with DJ Greg Vandy and then Colorado’s transcendental folk group Elephant Revival on Saturday.
On Sunday, Chef Rodney Muirhead of Podnah’s Pit will be paired with The Soul Rebels, a New Orleans ensemble that mixes soul, jazz, funk and defies easy genre labels.
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