Last week we introduced our sponsorship and anticipation for Pickathon Festival. As we set up our tents and camping gear on Pendarvis farm, we nestled into our home for the next few days. It’s an unforgettable experience to many who were in attendance and a journey best described from a first-person perspective from a long time admirer of Pickathon (and other festivals). And so, we asked Jamie McMullen, one of Marmoset’s Music Licensing Coordinator to capture her experience in her own words.
In this special edition of this journal takeover, Jamie guides us through her story with music and her arrival at what festivals like Pickathon mean to her. Read below to discover more:
Jamie McMullen, Music Licensing Coordinator
I remember my early adolescence in Providence, Rhode Island. I would have sleepovers at my friend’s house on the east side of town. We would walk across the city and pay $5 on a Friday night to see live music at either Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel (the Westminster St. location) or the non-profit artist residency, AS220, that still stands strong today. I remember attending the free summer concerts that Brown University’s radio station, WBRU, put on each year at India Point Park.
My love for music has been strong since I could walk and this was the first experience of seeing it in my community. In front of me. Experiencing live music at this age was so crucially important to me and has helped shape who I am as a musician, music lover and the chosen career path I am on today.
It does not go unnoticed to me that Pickathon brings this experience to children, adolescents and adults of all ages. Unfortunately, Portland has lost a handful of all ages venues and DIY spaces (shout out to The Artistery!) due to the inevitable gentrification of the city the last handful of years. I am relieved to know that Pickathon is here to stay and gives an opportunity to help shape our youth’s love for music. And It is here to revive every adult’s love for music as well — including myself.
If you aren’t young already, you will feel young again when at Pickathon. When there, you find yourself charged up with an infinite amount of energy to catch as many music sets as possible, to take in the experience with the people around you. It’s a time to feel inspired and recharged spiritually over and over again. I even overheard people calling it “Tenderfest”.
For one small weekend, the worry and hardships I all too often carry around, disappear into the woods. People really do come together for the sake of music, nature and humanity’s bond — 20-year-old hipsters, families with tiny babies and children, and couples in their 70s are all in attendance. Almost every artist I saw perform mentioned how incredible the opportunity was to play at this magic festival.
A few clients of mine soon became friends this weekend. Five of us girls spent an entire day and night running around like teenagers — it felt so freeing. Together, we explored the psychedelic installations hanging from the trees and the light show that was displayed over the white canopy of sails that decorated the sky at night. I felt the Mali group, Tinariwen, put me in a trance with their hypnotic rhythms. I was captivated by The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman, as I related to the stories in her songs. I laughed a lot. And you bet I cried my eyes out when Phosphorescent played “Song for Zula” to a congregation of people in the forest.
There were many more perfect moments in between the ones I mentioned, but I will keep them to myself. My soul needed a weekend such as this — it needed camping, being surrounded by music and other souls who were equally filled to the brim with all of the good vibes. Hopefully next year, you can join me in this memorable kind of journey at Pickathon.
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