Pickathon: The "Underdog" Festival Celebrates 17 Years

Article by: Hilary Saunders|@Hilary_Saunders

Wed July 29, 2015 | 00:00 AM


Midday on Tuesday before the 17th edition of Pickathon , co-founder Zale Schoenborn sits on a vintage, leaf-print sofa deep in the woods behind Pendarvis Farm. He’s dictating emails on his iPhone in preparation for the weekend, while simultaneously watching Bill Kennedy of the Northern California-based company Inflatabill set up his geometric installation art in the sky.

This secret area, with fences made from fallen tree branches sheltering it from the rest of the woods, is home to what’s known as the Pumphouse. During the festival, the production company Live and Breathing Records hold private sessions here, but for now, the area serves as a refuge from the rest of the bustling set-ups on the farm.

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Pickathon has earned a reputation for being an "underdog" music festival. The three-day farm party, located about 20 miles outside of Portland, Oregon, is still completely independent after all these years. It’s also one of the greenest festivals in the country, completely eliminating single-use items like paper plates and beer cans, as well as one of the most family-friendly (granting free admission to kids under 12-years old). Still, Pickathon manages to attract bands like tUnE-yArDs, Ty Segall, and DIIV to play on its seven wildly diverse stages, as well as many of the most respected local food and drink purveyors.

We checked in with Schoenborn and Kennedy about this year’s festival, collaborating with IFC’s hit comedy show Portlandia, and Pickathon’s role in the greater American festival landscape.

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How did you originally envision Pickathon and how has that vision evolved?

Schoenborn: We wanted to get together with friends and perfect the perfect party with music we love. The party has just gotten bigger with better music and more fun.

How is Pickathon different from other major American music festivals?

Kennedy: It’s about music. The other ones are about drinking and partying. This one is actually about the music....The farm is its own special place. It’s the people I work with and it’s the best crowd I’ve seen at a festival. But also, I’ve never seen so many instruments in the parking lot or kids playing on trails. Again, people come for the music.

Schoenborn: We make certain choices to create the best weekend possible. But those are sometimes irrational choices in term of business. That’s more interesting to me as a mission rather than get rich in a couple years and get out.

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How would you describe Pickathon's identity within the festival landscape?

Schoenborn: We don’t try to compare or contrast or worry about other festivals. We’re very hard on ourselves in terms of how we can improve from year to year in our core mission—exploring the nexus of art, music, design, food and drink, sustainability, community, and media. We just think about what would be more amazing for us to do the next year.

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Photo by: Liz Devine

What's so great about Portland's culture? And tell us about Pickathon’s role in the community in terms of working with the Architecture Department at Portland State University to build the new Treeline stage? 

Schoenborn: What's amazing about Portland culture and music and values, is that whatever subculture you’re into, Portland goes deeper. The most important part of going deeper is having a story, which becomes a craft over time. Those stories are what matter and why people love things. I think that Portland has really fertile soil for these like-minded folks.

We wanted to create a relationship with the university to build unique, sustainable stages at Pickathon. It took close to three years of working with Portland State University to get to the current scale with this year’s Treeline Stage. It’s super satisfying to see it come together, for us and PSU. No doubt we’ll be doing more in the future.

What are you most looking forward to this year?

Schoenborn: It feels like we redid the whole fest top-to-bottom this year. I’m excited to see it unveiled to new and returning attendees.

Kennedy: Earlier in the year, I was listening to the lineup playlists on Spotify. But I’m really going in with a blank slate. I’m expecting to find really good music and then go home and buy it! And as a fan, it’s fun to watch Portlandia, but that’s just a side note!

Schoenborn: Oh yeah, the part that’s going to be public facing is going to be really fun!

What else can you share about Portlandia’s involvement?

Schoenborn: Collaborating on an episode that’s actually entitled “Pickathon.” It occurs at Pickathon, the characters come to Pickathon, and they’re filming scenes as a live event that will partially include extras from the crowd of actual festival attendees. And at the end, there will be a special musical guest, which is very much the music fest component.

Pickathon goes down July 31-August 2.