Drinking the Pickathon Kool

It’s wild to me—as it is to so many friends and literally every single person I talked to over the weekend—that I had never been to Pickathon until this, the farm music festival's 25th year.

I never understood it, I never got why anyone would pay so much money to see a line-up that, yes, always has a handful of really incredible artists, but is largely composed of smaller local bands and a slew of international artists not yet well known in the Northwestern United States.

That was my attitude until I finally went to Pickathon this past weekend, drinking deeply from the Kool-Aid punch bowl of music, yes, but also the forest camping above the festival, the immense food offerings, and all the little ins and outs explained by friends who have been attending the festival religiously for years