Few things get me hotter than a hen in Hades; even fewer set me to cluckin’ like a rooster in Riverside. Pickathon, happening this Friday August 6 – Sunday August 8 at Pendarvis Farms (16581 SE Hagen Rd. Happy Valley, OR), is one of those few things, and I’ve been sweating and squaking for over three months in anticipation of the 2010 version. Armed with an arsenal of under-the-radar bluegrass greenhorns, along with returning acts and Pickathon newbies, this year’s festival is poised to be perhaps the best yet.
Headlined this year by the enigmatic Bonnie "Prince" Billy and the Cairo Gang, Dr. Dog (now a festival hit after last year’s blistering mainstage set) and Heartless Bastards, and fortified with Portland-bred power from the likes of Richmond Fontaine, Typhoon, Sallie Ford, Black Prairie, and Weinland, Pickathon scintillates even the sourest of music connoisseurs (full lineup can be found here). Of course, there are many more bands to digest, to dosey-do to and so forth, and you probably won’t miss any of them due to Pickathon organizers’ ingenious method of rotating artists to play at different times of the day at different stages. So if you’re so unfortunate as to miss, say, Fruit Bats at the Galaxy Barn at 7 p.m. on Friday, August 6, you can catch them again when they play the main Mountain View Stage on Saturday at 6 p.m. They’ve got you covered, in more ways than one.
The Deli Portland will be there all weekend long, reporting the strange, the uplifting, the blasphemous, the smells of the hay from between our tired toes, and of course on the music – mostly of the Portland variety. We’ll even be there to report on how totally amazing the festival’s commitment to sustainability is!
If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, time is running out! Advanced Weekend and Single Day tickets will be shut-off starting Thursday at Midnight. Weekend, Single Day Tickets, and Parking Passes will be available at the gate if capacity allows (depending on sales over the next 48 hours). Tickets are more at the gate ($15 more for weekend, $10 more for single days), so it would behoove you to purchase in advance and save yourself some bread for when you’re exhausted by rock. Tickets are only available online, and run thusly:
Weekend Tickets $155, Friday Only $80, Saturday Only $85, Sunday Only $85.
To push those indecisive digits into action, might we suggest checking out this amazing All-Night Mix provided by the good people at Pickathon?
Now you see it don’t you? This will be a weekend for the books.
Remember to check back daily for photo uploads, reviews, rants, insights, festival highlights and more at the Deli Portland!
– Ryan J. Prado