Big Names and Local Bands are ready to slay at 2025 Pickathon
Big-name bands at Portland’s most unique music festival, 2025 Pickathon, include Portugal. The Man, Taj Mahal, Ocie Elliott, Julien Baker & Torres, and Haley Heynderickx.
But Pickathon (July 31–Aug. 3 at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley) is also a prime place to spot emerging talent. The lineup now spans indie, hip-hop, and roots genres, not just folk, bluegrass, and Americana. Just 16 miles from downtown Portland, festival artists play at least twice, giving them time to mingle and jam with fans and other talent, whether they’re glamping or crashing at the Comfort Suites Clackamas.
Pickathon is part SXSW (a discovery zone for talent), part Oregon Country Fair (camping, forest vibes, and no drunken A-holes), and part Portland (great food carts, and you can go home to shower).
The festival is small but perfectly formed, held on 80 acres and capped at 12,000 attendees per day.
Chris Acker Brings Alt-Country From the New Orleans
Chris Acker is a made-for-Pickathon performer. The alt-country singer-songwriter from Seattle found his musical voice in New Orleans, where he started by busking in the streets.
“In New Orleans, I found a unique musical environment where musicians constantly listen to and support each other across different genres,” Acker told KBOO.
He added, “I was always admiring the Pickathon lineups. It seemed like the festival most attuned to my taste growing up. But it always fell on the same weekend as the Subdued String Band Jamboree in Washington, which I went to religiously.”
Now he’s making his Pickathon debut and hopes to catch Taj Mahal, Dougie Poole, as well as clawhammer banjo artist Angela Autumn and Emily Nenni.
“I'm gonna see some buddies that I’ve never seen in that part of the world,” he said.
That may include The Rumble, a band bringing Mardi Gras Indian funk to rival the Meters, the kind of act that rarely visits Portland but always finds the crowd's rhythmic G-spot.
Tour Life, Cabin Class
Acker and his band are playing small (100-cap) clubs down the West Coast before Pickathon and the Subdued String Band Jamboree.
They won't need a tent because an old friend invited the band to stay in a “cabin on a river” near Happy Valley.
Catch him while you can: Acker now has management and a booking agent, and his live schedule is picking up.
He says his 2024 album Famous Lunch will feature prominently at Pickathon. With short time slots, he plans to play most of that record and one song from each prior release. Track one, “Shit Surprise,” is a fan favorite: lyrical, cliché-free, and yet vulnerable. It's a song about love and relationships that comes in delightfully odd packaging.
“The newer songs are less story-heavy but still image-forward, more crude or impressionistic, as opposed to linear,” he said. “It's nice to be intentionally vague for once. If anything, I’ve used too many words to beat a point over the head.”
Pickathon Grows Roots and Architecture
Pickathon’s influence is spreading. Its staff book music for venues like The Showdown (1195 SE Powell Blvd), and promoter Nicholas Harris curates for PDX Jazz, Soul’d Out, and Green Anchors in St. Johns. That venue, with its rusty steel sculptures, upcycled containers, and tree cover, feels like a Pickathon cousin.
The emphasis on temporary architecture is growing fastest. Each year at Pickathon’s Cherry Hill there is a stage designed by Portland State University architecture students. It must use recycled materials and be completely recyclable at the end of the festival. Like the bamboo bowls ($17), sporks and metal cups ($15) that replace single-use items, the goal is to showcase energy and waste conservation in a relatable way. This year’s stage promises to “breathe and undulate,” allowing people, light and air to circulate.
Their non-profit Creative Neighborhoods pairs architects and tradespeople with young people to build the stages to spark an interest in the trades.
The main Paddock stage is by ZGF Architects and Hoffman Construction. It’s another vortex of timbers to stare at instead of the usual black pad and silver lighting rig. Another stage, Mountains of Sound, looks like a climbable pyramid of speakers and wooden boxes resembling a pointy Cascade mountain.
Avoiding the “Corporate Festival” Trap
As Pickathon founder Zale Schoenborn told SPIN recently, the challenge is to survive financially without becoming like Coachella (125,000 attendees) or Bonnaroo.
“Every festival feels the same… Every stage looks exactly the same. There’s chain link everywhere. There’s shitty food, and it costs a lot of money,” Schoenborn said.
A three-day pass in 2025 is $475, while day tickets are $238-$263. Schoenborn says half the tickets are given away or subsidized for volunteers to maintain a community focus.
Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who made rare Pickathon appearances in 2010 and 2024, told SPIN:
“The bigger festivals… spend much more time and thought on building brand than on making the experience actually awesome for both audience and performers.”
Pickathon day and weekend tickets are still available, but all camping beyond primitive camping is sold out. Visit https://pickathon.com/lineup/music/ for the full lineup and more info.