Over the past nine years Pickathon has initiated all sorts of innovative measures with the big picture goal of eliminating 100% of the single use waste created onsite.

With the help of Klean Kanteen in 2010 Pickathon became the first music festival to eliminate all single use cups and water bottles. Since 2011, with the help of Bambooware, Pickathon became the first large American outdoor music festival to eliminate all single use dishware and utensils. These initiatives have helped us reduce the volume of garbage going from Pendarvis Farm to the landfill each year by over 50% since 2009.

None of this could be done without the enthusiastic support and cooperation by the amazing Pickathon community. It has been a grand experiment, an effective one, but an experiment nonetheless.

So what do this mean for you while at the festival?

Dish choice #1: Similar to previous years, you’ll purchase a unique token for $10 and bring it to any vendor in exchange for a plate and utensils with each order. When you’re done eating that delicious Portland cuisine, you’ll bring your dirty dishes to one of the Dish Return Stations and get another token for use with your next meal. At the end of the weekend, you’ll redeem this token at the Dish Booth and take your new Pickathon dishware and utensils with you.

Dish choice #2: You can opt-out of the whole token/dishware system and manage your own reusable dishware and utensils all weekend at no cost. This means you need to bring your own clean dishware to a food vendor, and then wash your own dishware and utensils yourself at our DIY Dishwashing Station, then store it at your campsite and repeat all weekend long.

Cup Choice #1: You can purchase one of our collectible Klean Kanteen 2019 Pickathon Pint Cups from the Pickathon Dish Booth or in any of the beer gardens and you can use it all weekend in the beer gardens and at the vendors, then bring it home at the end of the weekend.

Cup Choice #2: You can bring, use, and wash your own cups, for no cost, for use with our food vendors for any non-alcoholic drinks. We have to limit this choice to non-alcoholic drinks only: coffee, smoothies, lemonade, anything in the food vendor area. The beer garden will only pour into Pickathon Klean Kanteen cups. These cups can be your very own, but they gotta be those Pickathon Klean Kanteen cups from 2010-2018.

Here’s a graphic on spelling out how it works for the dishes:

We really do appreciate the willingness of our community to embrace our 100% single use elimination goal, and eventually we’re sure we’ll get there.

Thanks all, and we’ll see you in less than two weeks!