Thank you Pickathon patrons, supporters and volunteers.

The Pendarvis Farm is settling down now, returning to the mostly wild landscape in which it will stay until next summer.

Pickathon 2011 was a rousing success with artists, audience, and press weighing in with their own personalized feedback.

Here is a partial sampling of what we’ve heard so far:

Grist, Tiny Mixed Tapes, Melophobe, Oregonian, Willamette Week, and Saving Country Music. Plus loads of kudos being broadcast over Twitter from many of the artists – Ray Wylie Hubbard, Fruit Bats, Black Mountain, Strand Of Oaks, Future Islands, Damien Jurado, and many-many more.

Before we ask for your feedback we wanted to give you our vision for where we plan to go in the future.

Pickathon will always be a festival centered on the most amazing array of bands we can put together. Our musical mix is quite different and broader than many festivals and we appreciate that the music lover in you looks forward to seeing some of your favorite artists while being open to new experiences.

Pickathon would not be Pickathon without all of the other countless elements that make up the incredible experience surrounding the music at Pendarvis Farm. Many of these elements are unique to Pickathon.

As we look to the future on how to keep things special, one word comes to mind:

Sustainability.

Pickathon thinks of sustainability as the balance between many components: environmental impacts, audience comfort, artistic beauty, land stewardship, and fair compensation for a dedicated community who works year round to make Pickathon happen.

The end goal is for Pickathon to become something that will last for at least a generation to come.

The good news is we are getting closer to this goal.

How close?

Our master plan is to take our time and grow over the next two years to reach a peak capacity that will be only around 30% over the 2011 attendance, and then cap it for a long time to come.

We limit the growth each year based on the land and infrastructure improvements we make in the off-season (and there will definitely be some solid new improvements coming in 2012!).

Our vision is to do all of this without overt corporate sponsorship or monetization of basic needs such as water and camping; and allowing for people to make personal choices in as many areas as possible (transportation costs, food options, single use utensils, etc).

So, now it is time for you to tell us how we did and whether we are on the right track for reaching our goals towards long term sustainability.

Feel free to comment on anything you liked, disliked, band suggestions, commentary, stories, and ideas you would like to see in the future and we will do our best to make it all come together for an even better 2012 Pickathon.

Looking forward to next year!

Pickathon Staff