Pickathon Music Festival is Great for the Tunes... and Food

Since the early 2000s, Pickathon music festival has served up its own special blend of Americana, country, bluegrass, rock, pop... you name it, the festival has likely highlighted a band or two that fits the bill. And while this special festival, tucked away on a 40-acre farm amid the encroaching suburbs of Happy Valley, has long been a darling of the Northwest music scene, one lesser-known element of its offerings includes the Curation series, where guests can combine the bounty of Portland's food scene with live, up-close-and-personal music sets.


I've been attending Pickathon off and on since 2007 — when bands like the Avett Brothers and Jolie Holland delighted audiences as relative up-and-comers. The food carts that set up shop there have always been Portland-caliber; as in, you'd never have  to submit to eating a sweaty hot dog on stale bread while attending this festival. This year, like other years, Portland's Pine State Biscuits and Salt & Straw were among the bastions of Portland to have a booth, along with Bend's own TOTS!, the Bob and even Mid City Smashburger — of both Bend and Portland fame — in attendance.

Still, the advent of the Curation series has brought a new level of foodie heaven to Pickathon. Guests are whisked away to a private space off the festival grounds, where long picnic tables are set up to encourage conversation with new friends.

Each meal of the series, which starts with a Friday night dinner and continues with Saturday brunch, Saturday happy hour and Sunday brunch, is helmed by a local chef — a rotating cast of characters from Portland's culinary scene.



Drinks and mingling are mixed with a DJ set, and as the food starts to arrive, a band playing at the festival comes in to give guests their very own show.

At our dinner, Chef Luna Conteras of Chelo was in charge of the kitchen, starting out our meal with a gazpacho made with tomato and melon — a cooling treat after a day spent in the dust and heat of an August festival. A salad followed, featuring a mango vinaigrette, farm greens, corn, berries and cotija cheese. Then came the main course, featuring branzino (fish) with tobiko (yum), seared garlic and epazote, alongside several veggie dishes, including a delightful roasted summer squash. Dessert, again, paid heed to the heat of the fest; coconut flan made an ideal bed for a hearty dose of marionberry compote.

And then there's the music. For our ears on this Saturday night, it was Elephant Revival, the Colorado-based six-piece that croons out a beautiful blend of Celtic, Americana and folk.
Being at a weekend-long camping festival means one is almost always  within earshot of some tune or another, but there's nothing like the intimacy of a private show where everyone is seated and in sync -- eating together, talking together and then, in the case of Saturday night's Curation dinner, gathering together in a circle to surround the band while they sang an amazing a capella tune. This experience added a layer of intimacy that I had yet to experience — even after going to the same festival most years since 2007.


Next year, when Pickathon comes around, music lovers — and food lovers too — would do well to consider picking up a ticket to the Curation series, along with that weekend festival pass.