Like outward ripples of sound moving across the surface of a pond, like the fibrous weave of a freakin’ spider’s web holding space in the pulse of the wind, and just exactly like a maelstrom of feeling swirling up from a guitar into the leaves above… well, you should probably just venture into the Woods this year, and find your seat.

A Joyful Collaboration

The Woods Stage has always been a joyful collaboration. What began as a shared spark between Zale and our lead designer grew, year over year, into something bigger — more scale, more complexity, more beauty. It usually starts with a seed of inspiration, and from there we respond, riff, and build. Whatever ideas take shape are always brought back to Zale and the core team to consider together, because several healthy, joyful minds who love life always make something better. Always.

The Big Year of Its Full Flower

And we’ve grown right alongside the stage. As the Woods Stage has gotten wilder and more elemental, so have we. We’ve just been flying — and sometimes, mid-flight, we notice things that were there for us to realize all along. Like the fact that the Woods Stage is a living thing. It undergoes a lifespan of about 7 years of self-development before it’s brought down and reinvented. Since the very start of Pickathon at Pendarvis Farm, the Woods Stage has been reborn about four times. And 2026? We think this is the culmination year of the current cycle — the year it reaches its zenith form. This is the big year of its full flower, before it’s reborn again next year.

Of the Farm, Of the Forest

The Woods Stage is of Pendarvis Farm. It sits in its remarkable, uniquely shaped draw in the land, always in conversation with the trees that nestle around it. When you’re there to be part of that conversation, the sense of place is total — the entire arena is alive, and the stage becomes a year-to-year interpretation that evolves before your eyes.

And the forest itself contributes. The trees drop the branches they want to add to the effect. The Douglas Fir offer their mighty branches, both straight and curved. The Maples give their stout posts and forked limbs. The few Cedar lend their tapering, sinuous curves. And the Vine Maple always delivers the most magnanimous, gently arcing lines of all, covered in moss. All of them contribute.

The Pickathon Woods Stage is a summation of all that the forest and people can give to beauty, love, and music.

Come find your seat in the Woods.