Musicfest NW
  • MusicFest NW

In previous years, Portland, Oregon's MusicFest NW was a citywide treasure hunt. A relatively cheap wristband granted access to hundreds of bands playing shows in venues big and small all across town over five days. For visitors, the eclectic schedule provided terrific motivation to explore the city and take chances, even if it occasionally meant facing lines or missing bands. However, I can imagine that for some locals, it might have felt less like a festival and more like a widely dispersed series of hassles.

In his last year at the helm, Trevor Solomon flipped the festival's format completely. One site, two days, no overlapping bands. Where the previous installations invited rigorous strategizing, this time, Portlanders needed only to decide when to show up at a dusty stretch along the Willamette River and how long to stay. During the day, each band got approximately 55 minutes onstage. As soon as they finished, attendees had a few minutes to comfortably shuffle to the other side of the park to see the next band playing on the other stage. The herd moved in this pendulous fashion throughout the day; if a particular hour of the schedule didn't appeal, options included grabbing a pair of noise-canceling headphones for a session with dueling DJs in the silent disco, perusing the exceptional collection of food carts for an artisanal snack, or hunting for a place in the shade. After the day's events concluded (at a very civilized 10 p.m.!), a few aftershows had been booked by the festival and sponsors, for which separate tickets were generally required.

Although it lacked some of the potential for overstimulation that has been a major part of the explosion in music-festival popularity (a bubble that might be on the verge of bursting), the reconfigured MusicFest NW felt much more like a community gathering—a reason to spend a sunny weekend by the river listening to music—which may have been the point all along.

Pictures from the weekend after the jump.

Saturday

Man Man: Keeping Portland Weird
  • Man Man: Keeping Portland weird with capes and chants

Future Islands
  • Future Islands: a rare moment of quiet between dance breaks and demonic vocal possession

Run the Jewels
  • Run the Jewels: "this counts as cardio"

Phantogram
  • Phantogram

Girl Talk
  • Girl Talk: dancing normal feet

Girl Talk
  • Girl Talk: nice kicks

Girl Talk
  • Girl Talk

Sunday
Antlers
  • Antlers: implore you to stay hydrated and wear sunscreen

Fucked Up
  • Fucked Up: extolled the virtues of marijuana as weight loss cure, incited a circle pit dust storm, paused to pronounce the situation in Ferguson "fucked up".

tUnE-yArDs
  • tUnE-yArDs

Haim
  • Haim

Spoon
  • Spoon