Pickathon Music Festival Adds GZA & Wetleg To Lineup Feat. Built To Spill, Sons Of Kemet, & Armand Hammer

It’s a difficult task for me to ever try and narrow it down to one absolute favorite album of all time, but two that are definitely toward the top for me are Liquid Swords by GZA and Built To Spill‘s There’s Nothing Wrong With Love. Much less difficult to determine is my favorite music festival. Anyone that’s read any of our coverage of Pickathon over the last decade will know my unparalleled affinity for Happy Valley, Oregon‘s annual event. From the beautiful relaxing backdrop of Pendarvis Farm with its family friendly environment and lack of crowds or trash, to the consistently eclectic lineups and awareness enough to book each act to perform multiple times over the weekend to help alleviate scheduling conflicts, Pickathon is as much about what it isn’t as what it offers. The fact that both GZA and Built To Spill have been booked this year is only icing on the cake.

There are numerous strengths to Pickathon that keep diehards returning to the Pendarvis farm year after year, but you’ll find that one of the main things that a lot of the more mainstream outlets focus on is the forward-thinking sustainability efforts of the festival. If you’re looking for an angle for your article, it’s an understandable one to take, but it does seem a little ironic that one of the elements that get overlooked the most at this music festival is the music itself. I blame some of this on the fact that the name Pickathon suggests a strictly roots music or bluegrass gathering to those who have never experienced it. But while rootsier acoustic acts are always represented, things have evolved tremendously from its beginnings as the small local event thrown together over 2 decades ago. The lineups are always thoughtfully crafted and varied, featuring hip-hop acts to garage-psych, soul music, post-punk, and beyond. Great care is put into assembling these things, but their formula generally includes some sort of established acts; a good selection of high-caliber women artists; rowdy, high-energy younger bands; some offering of remarkable world music; and, without fail, at least one act that you may not be very familiar with, but will go on to establish themselves as one of the hottest and most sought after acts around, within a year of the festival. This year, the depth in the scheduling will be expanding with more focus placed on the inclusion of live podcast tapings and stand-up comedy.

When the initial lineup for this year’s festival was released, it included some impressive names, but, after 2 years of operating like a straight-up hermit and avoiding any sort of major gathering, whatsoever, I remained on the fence about going to any festival, even one so consistently thoughtful and that I love as much as I do this one. That said, today’s announcement of the addition of GZA backed by a live band and the critically acclaimed UK act, Wet Leg to the schedule… I’m basically packing my tent up right now to get ready.

Here’s a flyer for the updated lineup below

Passes for Pickathon can be purchased now via Pickathon.com.

On-site camping is both available and recommended and children 12 and under are free to attend.

The Pickathon website currently features the full lineup with details on each artist. It’s definitely worth sifting through if/when you have the time. I need to delve deeper myself, but, until then, our suggestions for can’t-miss acts, aside from GZA and Built To Spill, include Sons Of Kemet, Automatic, and Billy Woods.