Pickathon Returns to Portland, Oregon August 2-4, 2019, Announces Lineup Including Khraungbin, Tyler Childers & more

Pickathon returns to the woods outside Portland, Oregon from August 2-4, 2019, with an initial lineup released January 21. Pickathon has built a reputation over the last twenty years as the best festival experience, combing groundbreaking programming focused on discovery, sustainable ethics, and a lineup that pushes the boundaries of genre. This vision is clear in Pickathon’s initial lineup, which brings together key headliners like Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (Rateliff’s first time playing Pickathon and he’ll be bringing two different bands), Khruangbin, Mandolin Orange, Tyler Childers, Lucius, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Fruit Bats, and Mountain Man with a voraciously broad cast of other performers like well-loved Americana outsiders Caamp, Lambchop, and H.C. McEntire, doom metal band YOB, North African desert blues artist Mdou Moctar, new supergroup Bonny Light Horseman, Northwest indie royalty Damien Jurado, Laura Veirs, and Courtney Marie Andrews, returning favorite Julia Jacklin, psych soul outfit The Marías, Polaris prize winner Lido Pimienta, Congolese experimentalists Jupiter & Okwess, and word-of-mouth newer artists like Sudan Archives, Miya Folick, B Boys, The Beths, and Black Belt Eagle Scout, among many others.

Pickathon 2019 Lineup

“Our secret,” explains festival founder Zale Schoenborn. “is that we continue to double down on choices that only make sense when your primary focus is to make the best experience possible, even when it sometimes conflicts with maximizing profits. We made a conscious choice some years back to limit our attendance to favor the comfort of our attendees over finding new ways to maximize how many people we can jam into Pendarvis Farm. Entering our 21st year, Pickathon remains inspired to innovate new ways to create the best festival experience.”

“Pickathon, like a microcosm of the Northwest itself, somehow continually manages to walk the line between quiet and pleasant genteel and/or raggedy and unkempt and wild,” says Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats. “Even though the visual pallette and lineup and feelings seem to get honed down to an ever-sharpened point every year, it still always feels totally raw and spontaneous at the same time. I like the blurred lines between the artists and audience, the children running wild, and the fact that I’m always compelled to not miss any set. You’ll never see more musicians watching other musicians. I’ve always likened it to a dog park for bands. I love running around with the other pups at this thing. It creates a completely unique unfiltered atmosphere that anyone watching can feel, even if they can’t explain it.”

Laying back on the grass late at night, with hyperdrive spreads of neon light flashing overhead on the Starlight Stage, Pickathon soaks into your soul. It’s the kind of festival you come back to every year, a place to renew yourself.