Nolan Parker
Posted inPickathon
The Pickathon 2026 Music Lineup is Here!
Marcos Valle, Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Folk Bitch Trio, and more pull up to Pendarvis Farm, July 30 to August 2.
Pickathon
Posted inPickathon
How to Conquer Pickathon (And Still Love It in the End)!
A guide to seeing every band—plus some—at Portland’s best festival.
To love anything is to be challenged by it. Love shouldn’t hurt you, and at its best, it has the power to push you to your limits in pursuit of growing, changing, and learning something new about yourself. After all, as the late Andrea Gibson once said, “It hurts to become.” Depending on what it […]
Posted inPickathon
Drinking the Pickathon Kool-Aid
And liking it!
It’s wild to me—as it is to so many friends and literally every single person I talked to over the weekend—that I had never been to Pickathon until this, the farm music festival’s 25th year. I never understood it, I never got why anyone would pay so much money to see a line-up that, yes, […]
Posted inPickathon
Pickathon: A Friendly Guide to Portland’s Greatest Festival
So many stages! To camp or not to camp. What’s a dish token?
It’s that time again, Portland: The 25th annual Pickathon music festival is upon us! Chances are, if you’ve held court with any of Portland’s many, many music nerds and concert junkies, you’ve likely learned a great many things about Pendarvis Farm’s four-day, genre-agnostic blowout. Trying to describe Pickathon to people who haven’t been is tough, […]
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Pickathon 2025: 15 Acts Not To Miss As Chosen By a Festival Vet and a Total N00b
Struggling with who to see? Let our most-anticipated acts this year help make it easier… or way, way harder!
Described by most who attend with an almost holy reverence, Pickathon is an immersive, magical, and otherworldly music festival, tucked back in the woods beyond Happy Valley. Hosted at Pendarvis Farm, the fest’s programming is—year after year—some of the best in Oregon, 2025’s lineup is no exception! It’s pretty wild, but I (Nolan Parker, Music […]
Posted inMusic
Photo Essay: Pickathon Night Mode
Our annual photo essay brings you beautiful live music moments from Elephant Revival, Durand Jones, and Pahua.
Our annual photo post, guaranteed to give you FOMO, has arrived. As he’s done for the past two years, photographer Mathieu Lewis-Rolland captured some of his favorite sets for us, and in doing so, provided an atmospheric view into Pickathon at night.
Posted inPickathon
Pickathon 2024 Maintains the Live Music Magic
The farm music fest sent everyone home with a new favorite band—we were surprised to find plenty were from Portland!
Portland-area farm music fest Pickathon could have lost some of its magic this year. There were more tickets on offer, which meant a potential for larger crowds. The days were hot and dusty—even if they weren’t as scorching as previous summers. And anytime you left Pendarvis Farm, you needed to wind through a suburban subdivision, […]
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The Mercury’s Guide to Pickathon 2024: Nine Music Picks You Must Not Miss
Listen for La Lom, Andi Oasis, and Lo Steele. Plus, our hot anticipation for Geese’s Justin Bieber cover
The forecast for this year’s Pickathon looks temperate compared to the past two scorchers, but the line-up is looking hotter than ever. Here are nine picks from the Mercury’s music nerds. See you in the forest!
Sitting at your desk waiting to fuck off and get in a field? Here are the Mercury’s music picks for Pickathon 2024. Fight us in the comments. I love talking about music.
Posted inHear In Portland
Hear in Portland: Pickathon’s 2024 Lineup, Jenny Don’t and the Spurs’ Broken Hearted Blue
Orquestra Pacifico Tropicale, Caicedo, and Seattle’s Terror/Cactus play a cumbia-forward show you must not miss.
As we count down to being inevitably, forever changed by Cowboy Carter, the new Beyoncé album, we know our new Beyoncé-changed self will still be stoked about things happening on a local level, including some of Portland’s own beloved country-western musicians Jenny Don’t and the Spurs. We’ve got news about a new release from that […]
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The Mercury’s Favorite Moments of Pickathon 2023
“The volunteers were kind. The music was excellently curated, and I again came out of it appreciating new artists.”
It felt like a lot was riding on this year’s Pickathon. In 2022, its first year back after the pandemic, we saw some of the farm fest’s returning pains. We also jumped around to GZA with the Phunky Nomads and decided Pickathon could still bring the magic. This year, the interim work was obvious. Neighborhood […]
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Photo Essay: Pickathon 2023 in Pictures
Trippy art and unforgettable live shows from the annual music festival at Pendarvis Farm.
Lee Fields on the Cherry Hill Stage at Pickathon 2023 – PHOTO BY MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND Related:The Mercury‘s Favorite Moments of Pickathon 2023 W.I.T.C.H. on the Woods Stage at Pickathon 2023 – PHOTO BY MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND W.I.T.C.H. on the Woods Stage at Pickathon 2023 – PHOTO BY MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND W.I.T.C.H. on the Woods Stage […]
Posted inMusic
Get Farm-Zoned With the Mercury’s Pickathon 2023 Picks
Lee Fields, Thee Sinseers, GEL, W.I.T.C.H., and many more play the best darn little music festival held 16 miles outside of Portland.
Stepping back onto Pendarvis Farm for the return of Pickathon last year—after two years without—felt like a return to happiness. We went bright-eyed about the line-up, the landscape, and the lunch options—not to mention memories of idyllic, mysteriously-appearing communal hammocks, streetwise busking children, and the festival’s new wellness expansion. It did not disappoint. The first […]