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Musicians love playing, and watching, Pickathon festival

Califone Ben is Ben Massarella of the band Califone. His message: "Where could we find a couple of sleeping bags and a blanket?" Just then, Sherry Pendarvis appears next to Grove. She's co-owner of the Pendarvis Farm property that hosts the roots music festival. Grove shows her the text, she scoots off and moments later reappears with an armful of blankets and sleeping bags.

Musicians love Pickathon. So you might have done a pretty good one-day festival of bands that were Pickathon, but does not Pickathon. The members of Blitzen Trapper and Fleet Foxes and Weinland, Laura Gibson and all of Viva Voce (which is admittedly only two people, and they were married) were on hand to drag. Those who have played the 13th edition of the festival could not stop saying wonderful things. Elliott Brood singer Mark Sasso: "Do you know it's good?" Singer-songwriter Bill Callahan: "It might be the best air I've ever breathed." 

Ray Wylie Hubbard, on Twitter the day after two sets of stomping country and blues: "Well, Pickathon has thrown down the gauntlet. All other festivals I will now judge by these guys. Just stellar." 

In spite of noticeably larger crowds -- co-founder Zale Schoenborn said the festival will finish somewhere between 3,300 and 3,500 paid, up from 2,600 last year -- it largely remained a musical playground for festival-goers as well as pickers and singers. A few of the sights and sounds: 

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The experiment to eliminate single-use dishes and utensils? Worked pretty well, for the most part. It was awfully easy if you purchased the Go Box token, which allowed you to get dishes with your meal and drop them back off after an exchange for another token. Hubbard and Portland singer-songwriter Alela Diane thought this cool enough that they purchased tokens despite access to free dishware backstage.

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