LineupThanks for a wonderful Pickathon XIV, now tell us what you really think By Pickathon . 2012-08-23 . (58) comments
First we want to give a big thank you to everyone as Pickathon 2012 was a huge success.
Magic seemed to blossom everywhere during the weekend, and the post festival cultural wake was felt far and wide.
We fundamentally realize that Pickathon is truly a group effort that involves the audience, musicians, staff, and vendors all working together to create something incredibly special and rare in the world of music festivals.
We also realize that year to year our challenges are different from other music festivals and thus we love to start off our post Pickathon blogs with a chance to collect your feedback on how we did and how you want us to proceed going forward.
Over the next days and weeks we will present some of the specific areas we want to share our thoughts as well as hear yours too (and we apologize for the possible overuse of sustainable as it is a word we like to sling around a lot).
Newer >>
Thoughts on Music << Older:
Availability of walk-up tickets, prices and livestream info
Magic seemed to blossom everywhere during the weekend, and the post festival cultural wake was felt far and wide.
We fundamentally realize that Pickathon is truly a group effort that involves the audience, musicians, staff, and vendors all working together to create something incredibly special and rare in the world of music festivals.
We also realize that year to year our challenges are different from other music festivals and thus we love to start off our post Pickathon blogs with a chance to collect your feedback on how we did and how you want us to proceed going forward.
Over the next days and weeks we will present some of the specific areas we want to share our thoughts as well as hear yours too (and we apologize for the possible overuse of sustainable as it is a word we like to sling around a lot).
Photo: Dylan Van Weelden . Pickathon
Newer >>
Thoughts on Music << Older:
Availability of walk-up tickets, prices and livestream info
2013-05-09 03:55:12
samdbgt@gmail.com
This is one of those kinds of activities that can relax our body and mind. A campfire surrounded by people is something that can give utmost happiness to anyone. When is the next pickathon scheduled? I would love to join you guys next time.ShortStuff Seed
2012-11-27 20:54:31
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2012-11-22 02:44:19
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2012-11-19 20:33:12
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2012-11-16 01:57:25
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2012-11-11 23:47:52
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2012-10-22 21:15:18
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2012-10-22 01:57:48
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2012-10-21 19:25:20
shilatangshiyun@gmail.com
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2012-10-16 20:28:38
The volume was too loud (Mountain View Stage/Main Stages). The past years have been excellent.
2012-10-12 15:25:14
Great experience! I would only suggest your secure the services of better sound teams. The sound set-up and sound check out process was sub-par. It appeared to me the performances were running late due to the inability to get the sound dialed in.
2012-09-16 13:46:04
Ban the Blanket!
2012-09-15 21:55:55
Your festival is unlike any in the world! I am truly grateful. Please don't raise ticket prices, I think you handled growth marvelously over the last 5 years. When something is this good, it has to be shared. The blankets are unfortunate. I was asked to move once while trying to enjoy some music. Most blanket people are pretty cool, though.
2012-08-31 12:11:31
I've got it! How about 2 Pickathons? One the old fashioned way and the other with the trendier rock sound. Pickathon and Blastathon. I would bet there would be sufficient demand for both.
2012-08-30 15:09:54
The blankets. Dear lord...the blankets. Please stop the madness. It's very frustrating to want to dance to a band and be met with a sea of sparsely attended blankets instead. I got there Thursday night and already the best areas were covered.
2012-08-30 14:57:56
coffeeisnice@gmail.com
I had a blast at this year's pickathon, it was my favorite thus far. Despite complaints about the size, I think it was well managed this year and the fact that it grew a bit did not detract from the experience. The Galaxy Barn was very well run this year, terrific sound. I had a great time volunteering with the film crew, will be back again for sure. I would echo the sentiments about taking more bold steps to keep our numbers not much greater next year, as well as a serious look at restructuring the sound and lights at the Woods stage for next year. My suggestion would be to point the crowd/atmosphere lights UPWARD to the trees rather than angled towards the crowd. The Woods stage has a natural ambiance that should be only need to be slightly enhanced by off-stage lighting. All in all the best festival you can attend in Oregon and I really appreciate all of the incentives to bike or take Trimet rather than driving. YOU ALL ROCK!!
2012-08-29 23:00:40
I love love loved the new showers, thank you! We were hoping for longer/consistent hours of availability for them if possible?
2012-08-29 20:22:52
5th Pick overall; first in two years. Have always loved this fest, but seems organizers have traded intimacy and bluegrass/roots/acoustics for large crowds and dollars. Woods Stage used to be magical; this year it was largely to be avoided. Please lose the vendors in the Woods. Would gladly pay more for less crowds and the old Pickathon magic.
2012-08-29 14:28:24
(1) Please provide some carts for campers moving stuff in & out of the woods. You had them last year, but none this year? (2) The biggest bummer beside the dust was the sound tech issues. A number of shows at the Main and Woods stages were cranked ridiculously loud, to the point of obvious distortion. Are the sound people listening to the same shows we are? Also, when you're almost an hour behind schedule (Woods), then maybe you should save the encores for another show. (3) Great lineup of bands, though, and that's the most important thing :)
2012-08-28 17:42:09
sherrett@speakeasy.net
The bands were great, the food and beer gardens were great, the camping and showers were great. I’ll echo what others have said about the Woods Stage though--the heat probably drove more people out there to stay out of the sun, but it was awfully crowded all weekend. And the elaborate production out there (video, audio, bands with larger setups, etc) seemed to be the main cause of the delays. But the Mt View stage was actually pretty uncrowded all weekend, if you were OK with sharing a blanket with a stranger every now and then. The Starlight Stage production was much improved this year—sound, lights, sightlines. Maybe some of the bigger-drawing bands could play out there instead of in the barn? And here’s an idea—have bands do little unplugged pop-up shows in some of the designated jam areas in the woods. That Bunny Glade area where KEXP was filming was great for folks lucky enough to stumble on it.
2012-08-28 14:05:39
oh, and 2 more things...the website this year was kind of hard to navigate. And the maps, while beautiful, were formatted to print out as posters. When you put it on a regular sheet of paper, the text was really hard to read.
2012-08-28 14:03:01
This was our 12th (or 13th?) Pickathon...great fun as usual. No giant gripes, but some suggestions.... -We volunteer every year, and I was ok with my shifts, but some friends on the brew crew said that their shifts were much longer this year, and it caused a lot of people to back out, leaving them understaffed. Might want to dial that back some, for the sake of the volunteers and to keep the beer sales flowing -Oregon Vineyard Supply (ovs.com) has the bidegradable polymer for dust control mentioned below. The bark dust made it worse, and I suspect wetting the paths would turn it into a muddy mess -as cool as the Woods stage is, I'd be inclined to keep smaller bands out there to reduce the crowd. That riparian area gets more damaged every year, and I hate to see such a negative impact from such a positive festival Thanks for such a great time, and for asking us what it needs to be even greater!
2012-08-28 13:59:05
Our 5th year at Pickathon...still great. I love that there are plenty of HoneyBuckets (just needed refreshing a bit more this year), Love the kid-friendliness (my kids look forward to this event every year), great bands (always find another favorite), lovely location, love all of the sustainability actions, love the free water trucks!!!, the 12th Night deal was awesome!!!, so many great great aspects making it our favorite event every year! The downsides to this year that were very notable were: the Woods Stage!..used to be my favorite but avoided it this year... too crowded, rowdy, etc... the charm is definitely gone. I don't feel that you need a bar and pizza there. It seems to add to the unnecessary crowds. Between tickets, food, etc. it was nearly a $1000 weekend for us...with the cost, and too many people (it's getting too big for the space), it was the first time I had a fleeting thought that we may not return next year. There was definitely a different vibe this year. I also agree that there could be more people for check-in, and being accurate on the time the gates open on Thursday...I too always saw 4pm, then it was suddenly 12pm. Luckily I was able to change my schedule, and still waited 1hour 45 minutes to check in. All in all, kudos to you all who work so hard to make this a great festival! I know it's a lot of work. The feedback is only because you asked for it, which also shows how committed you are!! Please keep it smaller so it doesn't lose the awesomeness that makes Pickathon what it is and why we all come. The charm of having smaller, lesser-known bands is great...they're cheaper too, right? Part of what we love is learning all of the new music as the line-up comes out. Every other festivals has big, expensive names, does Pickathon have to? Just a thought to help keep prices down. There are so many wonderful WONDERFUL aspects about Pickathon that make it so great!! Thank you!
2012-08-28 05:45:40
pendarvisfarm@frontier.com
Hi! We farm folk so appreciate your coming to visit for the amazing Pickathon. Thank you so much for respecting our forest; only a couple tents and a funny group of flags were left, and most importantly, the microtrash is well picked up, except for those diapers and bottles we found the other day. I hope there aren't more hidden unpleasant treasures. But by and large, it's awesome. We would not host this event if it were not so. For us, it must be totally forest friendly and kid friendly. Ok, yes, we farm folk are tree hugging sorts. Guildworks sets up some beautiful arial architecture, and the music is wonderful. We are sorry about the dust on our land. We have purchased already some simple garden water squirters. Summer is summer here in Oregon, and it is our chance to enjoy the outdoors when it doesn't rain. With that comes dry and loose soil. Some of it is due to the set up of the beautiful artwork, because of the lift trucks. You should see it in June; it's about as green as can be. We apologize for hills and awkward camping. It has been total wilderness up there until Pickathon campers. I hope the dreams you had were magical, sleeping where no one in memory has ever slept. We thank Solv for providing the shovels, and we see that they were used a lot. The whole experience is for us like a trampoline rope ride. Your participation helps us not to be another suburban development. Thank you for your support.
2012-08-27 12:12:17
I've got nothing but fond memories of this years Pickathon. It was my 4th or 5th one. Am really surprised to see reviews claiming the negatives outweighed the positives. Way to fixate on the half empty glass. I was blinded by the blue Wood Stage lights during Blitzen Trapper but even then it was part of the experience. I never felt it was over crowded, was not bothered by people talking at any point. I'm NOT in favor of raising the ticket prices so less people can come. Seems that would move it towards being some kind of elite event, why punish the hourly wage 20 something crowd so the grumpy 30-40 year olds crowd can have more room? They'll just whine about something else anyway from what I can tell. If it's at capacity then let it sell out faster, simple and fair solution. Moving on... The designated picking area was really cool and we raged it till late into the night on Saturday. Good idea there. The new shower experience was easy and clean. I asked about getting a massage early in the day Friday and they told me $60 an hour, came back a few hours later and the price magically jumped to $100 an hour, not cool and was put off enough to not want a massage anymore (that's rare). Kinda bait and switchy even if unintentionally so. 1 dollar per minute standard jumps to nearly 2 dollars a minute?.. Ok I'm over it. TV screens showing what's going on inside the Workshop Barn was cool. The fire was awesome. I agree it would be cool to water down some of the dusty paths, kind of like the volunteers do at Country Fair with buckets and holes in the bottom. Most everyone was so friendly. I noticed one of the vendors up by the Wood Stage late night Saturday was clearly drunk and accusing 2 festival goers of trying to steal his cheese or something and he apparently ripped off their wristbands which was an odd sort of buzzkill as those guys were so not trying to steal his cheese or something and what right does he have to rip off someones wrist bands as a food vendor? Would consider not inviting him back as a vendor. If I wasn't writing a review to provide constructive criticism I'd never even recall any of the 'negative' type stuff I noticed. Would recommend to any of my friends. Thanks you all!
2012-08-27 10:54:38
The good: The music (the Barr Brothers were AMAZING! I also loved Doug Paisley, Abigail Washburn, and Lake Street Dive), the food, the token system, the sound guys in the barn (especially Gavin!), and probably my favorite thing of the whole weekend, Twelfth night in the workshop!! The bad: It felt like a nightclub a lot of the time. It was hard to just relax and listen to the music with so many people talking loudly all around me most of the time. Also, we were kicked out of a great campsite by the "scouts" only to find others camping there later? The ugly: Not just my favorite stage but one of my most favorite places in the whole world was a train wreck. I didn't even notice the sets were running late in the woods because I was so heartbroken by the crowds and horrible sound (sorry guys, I'm sure you were doing your best.)I hung out there for two shows and then gave up. It was a pretty big downer. The biggest thing for me though was the volume of people. I voted to raise the ticket price in hopes that it wouldn't get any bigger than last year. I heard there was only about 500 more this year but it felt like thousands. Maybe it was the heat and my patience was low but the magic was definitely and severely diminished for me and I'm pretty sad about it. I can see most of these bands in any nightclub in the city but you see, the thing about Pickathon for me was I felt like I could breathe there. The farm, the sweet air and sweeter music made all the greyness of everyday life fade away for a time. That might sound silly but I know I'm not alone in feeling that way. Not so for me this year. If Pickathon is headed the way of more crowds, more booze,and late night DJs, just be honest about it. I'd rather breakup now and get over it than wait all year just to have my heart broken. In summary, I guess the body of Pickathon was there (good food, good music, all the hard working people that are required to pull off such an event) but, for me, the spirit was missing.
2012-08-27 10:46:55
We've been going to Pickathon the last 3 years and of the 3, this one was our least favorite. Our big complaints: 1)We were one of the big proponents of raising ticket prices to keep attendance lower and I felt like it was more crowded as a result. We would be willing to pay even more to keep this festival feeling small and intimate 2) The sound checks this year were a disaster, espeically at the Wood Stage, always running behind so you never knew when to take the horribly dusty hike in. 3) The dust! I realize this year was a hot one, but the dust on the trail to the woods was horrible 4) We really noticed a difference in the crowd that Pickathon is attracting. It was incredibly frustrating to stand behind a group of obnoxious 20-somethings who clearly had no interest in the music at the wood stage pounding cans of beer and just throwing the cans on the ground, passing around a bottle of vodka until it was gone and just throwing that on the ground. It was the first time we've really seen the kind of attendees at Pickathon that really belong at Sasquatch, with no respect for what Pickathon is about and no one to police their behavior. It really affected our experience. 5) The blankets in front of the main stage....ridiculous. I think that every night all blankets should be gathered and put in the lost and found to make room for the people that are actually wanting to see that particular act. I think those are all my complaints. Overall Pickathon is an amazing experience that we will probably continue to support every year. It just made us sad to see elements of it changing for the worse. For those of us who plan on coming every year, we would be happy to pay even more in hopes of weeding out the types of people that marred our experience this year.
2012-08-26 18:04:28
Howdy, Pickathon! I enjoyed volunteering, the music was amazing, the food vendors were wonderful and the camping was okay. Excellent job on the new showers. I would suggest improving the port-o-potty situation. Is this the same company you have used in the past? Maybe it is just an issue of too many people, but it seemed the honey buckets ran out of TP and sanitizer pretty early in the day. If you are going to allow people to stay on Sunday night, please have the honey buckets serviced one final time. Thank you for asking for feedback.
2012-08-26 12:17:43
LOVED Pickathon this year, great bands, loved the world music additions. Wonderful vibe to the fest. A few suggestions: Could have used a better guide to camping. Bringing a wagon to haul your gear is ESSENTIAL for family campers. Unless you're a super fit backpacker. Free water was essential, we drank gallons. More food choices would help, plus more vendors would be cool too. More family camping space would be great. More family programming too. The family programs were fun, but seemed a bit geared towards older kids. We have a 3 and a 6 yr old. Maybe organize nature hikes or exploratory tours of the farm to keep kids busy during the day. Stargazing at night... Anyways, great fest, congrats!
2012-08-26 10:17:44
Pickathon is always a blast. This year there were some frustrating pieces. The main one for me was the dust on the way to the woods stage. As a mom with two small children the amount of dust was pretty worrisome. I felt anxious and unable to breathe, let alone the lungs of little ones. There also was a maxed out feeling of the amount of people present at Pickathon. I think part of the reason people love to attend is that it has such a community feeling and everyone is in it together and this year felt overwhelming with numbers of people. That being said, we love attending. Thanks!
2012-08-25 14:14:29
We came up from BC for the 3rd year in a row and though it was still amazing, it was our least favorite year of the three. The highlight of the previous years was the wood stage and this year is was so overcrowded and delayed that it lost its magic. We loved the vendors and the token system. Showers were great. Friendly people. Campsite was already so crowded at 9am Friday that if we decide to go next year we will buy early entrance.
2012-08-25 14:07:58
Two strange things: The MCs were really pushing the beer garden between sets. They used to lead with "Everyone stay hydrated, and check out the vendors." They were consistently mentioning that the beer garden was open. Secondly, the bar in the kid's area was kind of surprising.
2012-08-24 23:30:58
One suggestion. Great little socializing area to the side of the Galaxy Barn. It was about 7000 degrees inside so we stood out there and watched the band on the bog screen. It was great except there is a huge floodlight next to the screen pointed directly into viwers eyes, making it hard to see the screen. How about some indirect light out there instead? Thanks Pickathon, we love you.
2012-08-24 19:44:28
jeffo43@hotmail.com
For the love of god bring back the Barr Brothers. Please water the paths - I don't care about being dirty but it was in my lungs and eyes and I avoided the Woods Stage because of it. More shade in the beer garden at Fir Meadows. As a ticketing volunteer, I felt bad telling people that showed up at 4pm on Sunday that they still needed to pay the $110 entry fee. That is ridiculous! Start it at $110 early in the day and bring it down each hour afternoon. People got there and then left because it was too expensive. It seems unreasonable. Otherwise, I loved every bit of it, thanks!
2012-08-24 15:37:03
This was my first Pickathon and I absolutely LOVED it!!!! The bands were amazing, water plentiful,food affordable, clean toilets, accessible showers- great job! One thought that came to me because I wasn't ready for bed after the last act of the night- would you consider a late night dance party with a DJ by the Galaxy Barn stage for the energetic night owls who still want to get their groove on???? Thanks again- an absolute BLAST! See you next year!
2012-08-24 14:45:46
the galaxy barn area w/ the screens outside showing the concert inside are great! nice upgrade to that venue!!!
2012-08-24 14:21:27
I have been to 10+ Pickathon's. Thank you for all you do to make this the BEST festival around! I have to agree with all of the prior posts in that I felt it is definitely at it's max for the amount of tickets sold. I am not sure that the guest lists were taken into account and how many more people this adds to the attendance. The "Dust" was a huge bummer. Water trucks to wet the paths would have helped immensely! There should be more stations for cleaning your dishes (this was a mess!). The Wood Stage was a train wreck and like others I may not even make it back there due to the lack of visual and the not so intimate feeling due to the new seating. I felt that this year was a step back from prior pickathons, as though there was less organization and confusion throughout. The need for shade in the Beer Garden should be essential, especially with 100+ degree temps. Thank you to the "Water Mister" this was needed! I love this festival and have volunteered for most. The longer shifts and not getting any of the shifts I desired has made me 2nd think about doing any more volunteering, will probably purchase tickets in the future! Love to you Pendarvis Family and Thank you for all you do!
2012-08-24 14:10:16
I would like to see more food boths as the lines were long and variety limited. I would also like to see an area for motorcycle parking, I ride a heavy bike and live only 5 min. away, but I had to drive my truck because my bike would not stand in the field. I loved the variety of music and would like to see a return to more bluegrass music. Lastly, I loved the token exchange system for plates and free drinking water available!!
2012-08-24 13:57:36
I came all the way from Bethel Alaska for my first Pickathon. It was a absolute blast. The mix of music was perfect and the setting and flow was great. There was alot of downtime for soundchecks but I'm not sure how avoidable that is. One suggestion for the wood stage and trail is to spray a ecofriendly polymer before hand to hold the dirt down. There are non-permanent, evironmentally safe products that can solve teh dust issue for very little cost. The only other gripe I had was the people claiming spots near the front of the mainstage with blankets and kicking folks out who wanted to dance. If sitting and watching is your bag their is plenty of room and probely a better view further up the hill. I loved the smaller sweaty venues. It brought me back to sweaty punk rock shows of my youth!
2012-08-24 13:44:04
I flew up from California to meet with my local buddies who swear by Pickathon. It was an incredible weekend... this could never happen in So Cal. Never. Keep up the good work! Positives: Unlike some posters, I love the bigger acts playing a second show on the smaller stages like the Woods and Galaxy barn. White Denim was epic. The staff was super friendly. I am very grateful that no one used the 'jamming area' near our campsite... sleep is a precious commodity at a festival. Gripes: shade in the beer garden - the entire area should be shaded. There should definitely be hay barrels on the main stage. Blankets in back, stop all of this 'reserved' space via blankets. The War on Drugs would have had a ton of people dancing but they just couldn't. Did I say more shade in the beer garden? If you do grow in size next year, do so mildly! THANK YOU PICKATHON!
2012-08-24 13:12:55
First off, Pickathon is my favorite weekend of the year. Thank you for bringing this festival to our community! I've been attending for five years with family and friends. In 2011, I felt the festival had grown to max capacity. This year, even with the changes to help reduce that feeling, I think there were times when it was too big. The Woods Stage was disappointing (sound, late, etc) and Galaxy Barn was a sauna. Loved the added shade. Food vendors were great. Thank YOU!
2012-08-24 13:11:30
After the commentary from last year's fest on crowd size and the proposed solution of raising ticket prices in an effort to control attendance I am curious what Pickathon thinks about the outcome. Do you think it was succesful, or not? To me that was the overriding concern of last year. Personally, I didn't see a difference this year.
2012-08-24 12:42:57
This was my third Pickathon and visually it was the most stunning of any of them. Amazing upgrades to the shade situation (though more in the beer garden is crucial!) and the social space behind the Galaxy Barn was really neat. As always, amazing vendors, amazing effort to minimize waste, keep it up! My complaints: My favorite place on the farm, the Woods Stage was an ABOMINATION. All sets started late... not even just late, but Saturday was an HOUR late to from the very first set! Unprofessional, and unacceptable! And yet the MC STILL encouraged every band to encore despite being behind. The sound was awful, and the crew was disorganized. I overheard them DURING one of the shows (not even before the show, in the middle of it) when the band wanted this and that turned up or down, saying "wait which line is that"... the whole crew argued about it and had no clue which hook up was in what amp, instrument, etc. It was an incredible bummer. I don't know if maybe it was just me but it was also way more crowded and did not have the same friendly vibe as I remember it from my first Pickathon. I would stress strongly you consider the balance between space on the farm, ticket sale revenues, and quality of the Pickathon experience! At the same time, thanks to everyone for all that you do to put this festival together. It is one of my most cherished annual activities!
2012-08-24 12:31:22
Mostly good, but: Really frustrated with most of the Woods stage experience. Very uncomfortable spot to have some of the bigger acts. Those blue lights at night pointing right into your eyes were painful, very poor design. More frustrating was how behind schedule things consistently got on that stage. 45 minute sound checks, sets running long...makes it a real bummer when you are trying to coordinate seeing an act there with other acts on the main stage. A little disappointed with "camp near your car." Arriving Friday afternoon to find people with "camp in your car" permits had already set up these huge palaces and taken up most of the space. Perhaps the camp host crew could guide people a little more on equitable use of the space. This last one is more about people in general than about the event, but it was frustrating the way people were 'reserving' space with their blankets right in front of the main stage, but not occupying it most of the time. So the actual audience for most mainstage acts felt required to either stand in a small area or find the tiny little strips of uncovered grass to sit on. This occured at the woods stage too, I saw people getting upset when they came back to "their" haybale (b/c they had left their blanket on it) after an hour to find someone else sitting on it. So, yeah, except for the setup and running of the woods stage, most of this is about the unfortunate need to provide more structure/rules for people to preserve everyone's positive experience as the festival gets bigger. There is a certain crowd size above which people will not police themselves well. Sort of like moving from a village to a city.
2012-08-24 12:29:23
Pickathon was great this year! Only gripe - Could you please not allow people to put down blankets to "claim" space in front of the mountain view stage? maybe have the back 1/2 of the audience area available for that, but for people to claim space then not show up seems wrong. Plus the overall vibe of that stage is totally different b/c of people reserving space and camping out. Might suggest putting hay bails in the front area like the woods stage where it's open, then blanket people in the back. Thanks again for a great year!!
2012-08-24 12:23:16
I was amazed to see bottled water for sale again at a couple of food carts. Loved the expanded shade sails. Thanks again to our camp concierge!
2012-08-24 12:07:42
susanmoray@comcast.net
Thanks for asking and unfortunately my list of disappointments exceeds the positives. This was my 7th Pickathon, to add some perspective. I love the plate and flatware concept (though some like Bunk handed out plastic which should not be). The shade structures are beautiful and necessary. (More in the beer garden would help). Great food vendors, full of variety. The small barn and intimate sets were our favorites. We RV camp with our VW Van and that is a great option. Concerns or disappointments are: Buying an early entry ticket and waiting in the hot sun for literally 2 hours to check is not necessary. A longer table, with more people checking you in is all it would take, I should think. We'd like it to be focused on Americana Roots music as it was originally. I love ethnic music, but not here when there are so many American bands to see. More acoustic sets would be appreciated or having bands play electric sets in the larger venues and an acoustic set in the Workshop Barn, as in the past. Cooling fans there and the Galaxy would be much appreciated by all and the bands, I imagine. You can water spray down the dirt paths, like at the Country Fair. It works great. We love to dance and at least a small dance floor at most venues would be so appreciated. It was really hard to go to the packed Workshop Barn for Petunia and the Vipers and not have room to dance. The Woods stage was ruined with it's capacity of seating expanded and in the last couple of years with beer and pizza there, people seem to think it's a bar so stand around talking during sets. Very distracting for the audience. Ditto the shockingly bright blue lights. My biggest gripe is that this year was far too crowded and if the intention was to sell fewer tickets to accomplish this, as stated, something went awry. Perhaps people didn't leave for the night who didn't have weekend tickets or numbers didn't include friends of the organizers or bands (I talked to 3 people who didn't pay and were allowed to be there, so count them as part of the crowd when you're figuring out how many tickets to sell or charge them - it would make paying attendees' experience much better). That's my biggest worry - that it will be that crowded again and I may have to skip it. Definitely not interested in a Pickathon that hectic. The overall vibe was less friendly, just a bit, and sure, the heat didn't help, but the survival mode that ensues when you may not to get near or even a place to watch a band, makes people crabby and unfortunately, less kind to others. Smaller, as in the past, would bring back that ol' Pickathon love fest.
2012-08-24 11:44:54
oneill.stu@gmail.com
first off, we absolutely LOVE pickathon! brought our 2 month old daughter and our family from virginia this year, including 4 kids age 2 - 11. everyone was so stoked and had a blast! music lineup was great, though maybe a slight step down from last year (minor complaint). kids activities were awesome. and overall, the pickathon vibe was right on target! super friendly folks having a great time everywhere. the showers were awesome. helped with the heat and dust factor greatly. one suggestion on the showers, can we have a family shower stall? it was challenging for mom and dad to bathe baby since we were separated by gender. phosphorescent in the barn!!! wow oh wow! ok, now some feedback... love the fact that pickathon does so much to reduce it's impact. yet, i was annoyed at the fact that some food vendors were serving disposable stuff. i think pickathon needs to really come down on them for bringing single serving anything to the festival. we all have our plates, bowls and mugs. we are all down with the mission. so, the vendors y'all bring in should be absolutely required to NOT serve anything single use. not sure how y'all can really police that, but worth a try... this year we bought one early entry pass so that i could set up the family's camping scene before the rush. on all the materials i saw leading up to the event, it said that the gates opened at 4pm on thursday for early entry. yet on the last email y'all sent out, it said gates opened at 12pm. well, for those of us who live out of the portland area and are driving up, that didn't allow us to change our plans. therefore, when i arrived at 4ish to set up, the campground was already pretty well full. so, please please please be very clear with those of us who pay extra to come in early so that we can set up our spot for the weekend. it worked out well for us this year...we had a great spot in family camp, but it was a little stressful and annoying to feel like we were not fully in the loop. re: #s...i am sure y'all are gonna hear tons about this, but please do not allow the attendance to grow beyond what it is. i don't think the farm can handle bigger crowds. i know the size is bigger than back in the day, and i understand why y'all have allowed it to grow, but i think we have hit the mark. any bigger and it will really start to lose it's magic. we love pickathon and will definitely be back again next year. thanks to all the amazing folks who make it happen. we are so appreciative that y'all ask for our feedback! whoot whoot!
2012-08-24 11:20:08
This was my first year. I was a volunteer also. My volunteer shifts were AWESOME and my crew was great (Dishwasher- Hospitality 2012!) Good things: music, food, people, free water (especially the mister guy on the 95 degree day!). Some help for the bad items: The smaller Barn locations should have fans installed above at least- they were saunas. Many times the bigger bands were booked in the smaller venues which made it super difficult to see. Like Kitty, Daisy and Lewis only had one show in the tiny Barn on one night. It was great nonetheless. Also, I repeatedly was disappointed with the Woods Stage. I love the way it's set up, except that there is a huge tree right in the middle making it super difficult to find a good spot for visuals at all. So many people would pack in and not only could we not see, but they were nearly NEVER on time. 45-60 minutes late for shows made it super difficult to stagger in the bands we also wanted to see on other shows. At least warn us of how long it will be so we know if we should go catch another band's last 30-45 minutes of their set while we're waiting around watching the sound guys in the Woods stage. Overall, I'll definitely come back, but I just might not waist my time in the Woods stage anymore and just stay with the main stages to avoid the frustrations. Lesson learned.
2012-08-24 10:40:37
Shifts for volunteers were way too long. I won't be volunteering again, and instead probably buying a ticket. Also not enough shade in the Beer Garden.
2012-08-24 10:37:10
katarat76@hotmail.com
Ditto the Woods stage concerns - the lights at night were blinding. During day time performances the volunteers were great at redirecting ppl to walk around rather than through; that's harder to do at night, but it would have been a bit easier to have a more brightly lit path around. Loved the spray bottle kids- I think you guys did well adjusting to the surprisingly hot weather. Need more wipe downs of food tables, or maybe a cleaning station with rags and water for concert goers to use. I never felt too crowded, except at night at Woods Stage. Dust was pretty gnarly, but not sure how it can be avoided. Portalets this year were not as well attended as last year- probably b/c the super hot weather meant we were all drinking way more liquids, but it was frustrating to not find a single one with water or toilet paper at 10pm Sat in the woods. All in all, it is such an amazing weekend, and is run so well for the number of ppl that attend.
2012-08-24 10:34:30
I agree with the previous poster. The volunteer shift was too much like my day job. I'll buy a ticket next year. SIX hour shift... c'mon. A lot of people this year, but the music is always great :)
2012-08-24 10:32:11
This was my first year at pickathon and i honestly dont know where to start i got to work security which was amazing; it was the best weekend i had all summer. Every band brought something different and the fact that the music goes till 2-something AM is so cool. No disposable utensils and flatware was a brilliant idea. Best vibes at a festival ever
2012-08-24 10:27:52
We've been attending for 10+ years, and enjoyed this year, despite the heat and the crowds. Liked: music (Shovels and Rope!), water, food, showers, kids' activities. Dislikes: pretty much all involved the Woods Stage - falling into the creek/trench during Neko's show (blinded by the lights), waiting 45 minutes for the Sat. morning kids' show; dust - bark dust? Prickly on the feet, and has to be bad for your lungs. I still love Pickathon, and think that the organizers are doing a good job of trying to balance growth and quality. But I do think that the number of attendees should not grow further next year... better to address the issues and keep it at this year's level (or a bit lower).
2012-08-24 10:26:55
Shifts are way too long for volunteers. Probably won't be back next year.
2012-08-24 10:12:40
Too many people, not enough shade in the main beer garden. Other than that- Loved the festival!!
2012-08-23 21:14:53
Pickathon
Thanks again all ... we're really sorry for the long delay before this post. It was a big year, and that meant big down time immediately after the fest. For those posting in the previous post, we definitely took notice of your feedback there and appreciate it very much.
