This is the stage that defined Pickathon. To reach it, you descend a steep trail into a deep, natural bowl ringed by towering Douglas Firs, where a living canopy of Big Leaf Maples forms a roof over the crowd. Because of this total shade, the Woods is our only outdoor stage that runs from morning until late night — a sanctuary that’s dappled and cool by day, bioluminescent and electric by night.

The architecture here is woven from the forest itself, reimagined every year in conversation with the trees that nestle around it. Each species contributes its own character: Douglas Fir drop their mighty branches, straight and curved; Maples offer stout posts and forked limbs; the few Cedar give their tapering, sinuous curves; and Vine Maple lends the most gentle, arcing lines of all, draped in moss. When we’re there to join that conversation, the whole arena feels alive.

This is also the culmination year of a longer story. The Woods Stage moves through roughly seven-year cycles of growth before it’s brought down and reinvented — it’s been reborn about four times since Pickathon’s start at Pendarvis Farm. 2026 marks the current cycle’s zenith, its fullest flower, before the next rebirth begins.

The stage has always been a joyful collaboration between builders and the land — ideas offered, tested, and shaped together by the core team, much like the forest itself: many healthy minds who love life, making something better together. The Pickathon Woods Stage is a summation of all that the forest and its people can give to beauty, love, and music.