Building Pickathon’s Paddock Stage
Pickathon is my favorite local event of the year. Tomorrow, the 25th edition will kick off at Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, eleven miles from my home in Southeast Portland.
The festival makes no sense on paper, or it makes all the sense in the world, depending on your point of view. No one is out to get rich. We’re all enriched by the experience. Again, perspective.
Each summer, designers, architects, builders, and hundreds more volunteers turn a dusty hillside into (to borrow Pickathon’s words) “an immersive musical fantasy park,” where I have camped, if you add up all the nights I’ve slept on the farm since 2014, for more than a month. That’s more nights, I realized last year, staring up into towering trees through the mesh of my tent, than I’ve spent outdoors in any other spot on Earth.
Who dreams this up? Who makes it possible? I spent the weekend before Pickathon shadowing volunteers building the Paddock Stage area, the heart of the festival grounds, photographing them at work and hoping to learn something about what each takes from the experience.
~ Dave Weich
“I feel like our team at Hoffman were pioneers with the intricate design of last year’s Paddock Stage. And this year it's a whole new animal. It's a lot more immersive. ZGF has done a great job—and Robert Petty, formerly from ZGF. The design is very tactile, really pushing this theme of immersive space.
My first Pickathon was 2015, and I haven't missed one since. I've shed many a tear, weepy-eyed, full-on emotional during sets at the Wood Stage.
I don't want to sound trite, but Pickathon is about people. It takes a lot of generosity and real love for community to pull this off.”
—TONY TRINH, Crew Lead, Hoffman Construction (right)
“I just moved here from Honolulu, and this is my first summer in Portland. I'm part of the design team at ZGF. My favorite part has been the collaboration. Every day I learn so much from my team members, and from everyone at Hoffman and Indigo and Pickathon. This is a great team.”
—CHUNYA YU, ZGF Architects (left)
“Last year was my first Pickathon. What stands out is just all the smiles on everyone's faces as you walk around. I volunteered on the video production crew, so I got to explore for hours, grabbing shots of everyone just vibing, enjoying themselves.”
—SARAH (right)
“It's good vibes, good energy. I think that always comes first. It’s a good time.
2015 was my first Pickathon, as a student at the PSU School of Architecture graduate program, and I've been out here building ever since. I'm always just intrigued to take a look at the creativity. It's an artist festival—music, art, construction, architecture, design, all of it.”
—JUAN CARLOS GARDUNO, Lead Architect, ZGF Architects (center)
“Because I'm a designer, I'm interested to see all these structures that are going up. The other thing is I’m excited about the music. I’m hard of hearing, so for me, it's about feeling it. I’m excited to see how this year’s design is going to help me feel the music, not just hear it, but feel it.”
—MOHAMED FAKHRY, ZGF Architects (right)
“Four years ago, at my first Pickathon, late on Saturday, friends coalesced over by the Galaxy Barn. A Zydeco band was playing, and music was blasting in the courtyard. We started doing this…’pine tunnel,’ is what we call it. People stand in two rows opposite each other with their arms up, and then people dance through the middle corridor. It’s a core memory for all of us.
Two years later, I was recounting the story to Zale [Schoenborn], Pickathon’s founder, and he says, ‘I was there!’ We have a video, so we watched it again, and he’s right there among 30 people dancing with us.
That’s the magic of Pickathon. I love it.”
—MICHAEL DEMELLO, Precision Construction (far right)
“I would describe Pickathon as a well curated, whimsical, musical forest adventure. I've been volunteering since 2015.
What stands out is how often a band delivers an amazing performance and the audience is giving them incredibly good energy back. If I thought hard, I could probably point to 30 of these moments, but it happens every year multiple times. There are some sets where it's just magic.”
—JOE
“This year’s concept for the Paddock area was inspired by the Djembe drum, the shape of it. And it’s ultimately to let people utilize all of their senses to experience the music. We partnered with Indigo Design to create an immersive light experience.
I always shout out one of our core team members, Mohamed, who is hard of hearing. The design is meant to allow everyone to see and feel the music as it's being played.
It's been a great effort. This is my first Pickathon. I'm just looking forward to the experience in itself, meeting new people and creating lifelong memories at the end of the day.”
—MALIK LOVETTE, ZGF Architects (top left)
“It's my first Pickathon. I really wanted to see the music, and I also like construction, so I was like, Why not volunteer? Two-in-one.”
—ALESSANDRA
“This year's Pickathon is about my 10th in a row. My wife starting coming in 2011, and I like spending time with her, so now it's a family thing. On Thursday and Sunday, our son will be here, too.”
—CHRISTOS
“This is my first Pickathon. My brother-in-law works for Hoffman Construction. I'm here with my sister and his wife.
Helping build the stadium and stage is pretty cool. I'm very excited. I've never been to this type of music festival.”
—JULIE
“I love the ecological standpoint of it—no waste. Having everything be reused over and over again, from the actual materials that we use to build it out, the wood, to the food, cups, and plates. I just love that. This turns back into a normal farm as soon as we pack up and move everything off. It's amazing to see the transformation in a very short, busy window of time.”
—BRADLEY COOLEY, Hoffman Construction