Pickathon Music Festival
Happy Valley, Oregon

​This little gathering of six thousand music lovers is considered by many to be the premier folk and indy rock festival in the USA. Indeed, the team that curates the festival looks for the “emerging bright lights” of musical culture, finds them and brings them to Oregon for this event. Certainly, Pickathon has become a beloved annual fixture in the lives of many Portlanders and people from around the world. As a camping-based four day festival, it is also one of the most family friendly gatherings one can find, with smiling children and parents filling the various amazing, sculptural stages and common areas. Located just outside of Southeast Portland, it is also one of the most sustainable such festivals in the world, with solar powered lighting systems, no-waste food systems, all reusable dining ware mostly brought by attendees, and the shortest possible urban commute for people who come to the festival year after year. Our own role in this project is to lead a special crew that spontaneously designs and builds performance, gathering, and logistical areas made of materials directly gathered from the floor of the forest – tree trunks and branches. The resulting structures are so enervating that the New York Times has many times referred to our “Woods Stage” as “The Premier Outdoor Music Venue of the USA”. Pretty nice for a day’s work up on a very tall ladder!