ByGD
This year was the 20th anniversary of the Pickathon music festival. The festival is older than my kids. Maybe Pickathon was always family-friendly, but they definitely think like parents now. But why take my word for it? My 14-year-old daughter attended the festival on my press pass. So like me, she must sing write for her supper tickets by sharing her experiences online.
The following is a teenager’s review of Pickathon. It is edited for punctuation, spelling and formatting. Enjoy!
ByGD
Image from Gratisography
Last week tickets went on sale for the second annual NW Terrorfest. I had planned to buy full three day passes as soon as they went on sale. But then I looked at my balances and thought, “Maybe I’ll wait.” While waiting, I checked out a lot of the bands on the schedule. I haven’t heard everything yet, and I liked most of what I heard, but a few bands made a stronger impression. Read More
ByGD
Fifteen years ago, I spent three months in India. Before I left, my husband gave me two gifts – a really nice pocket knife, and a Petzl headlamp. Both proved invaluable. Although the knife was later stolen, I still have the headlamp, and I still use it. It has accompanied me to multiple continents. I’ve used it on night hikes, to find the bathroom at state campgrounds, and harvesting vegetables from my back yard late in the season. It’s one of the best gifts my husband ever bought me. He ended up buying one for himself, too.
But when we were packing for our recent trip to Eistnaflug, the heavy metal festival in a remote fjord in Eastern Iceland, I pulled both headlamps from the pile on our bed of things to be packed.
“You don’t think we’ll need them?” he asked in the voice of careful doubt men reserve for moments when they suspect a woman has lost her mind.
“We’re not going to need them,” I answered.
When I left the room, he put them back in.
“They don’t take much space,” he said, tucking his headlamp into his backpack as I pulled mine back out and put it in a drawer.
ByGD
Spring is ticket season. Season ticket season, that is. I’ve already talked about the temptations of season tickets to Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Seattle Children’s Theatre. The truth is, I will try to attend as many performances by each of these worthy organizations as I can, but I did not buy season tickets to any of them. What did I ultimately spend my own money on? Read More
ByGD
Doe Bay has a slogan that says their music festival is for kids and adults can come, too. I’ve been to many music festivals around the Northwest and abroad, and the tiny Doe Bay, in addition to being a great place to hear next year’s hottest new bands, is the most kid-friendly.
The festival is tiny in part to maintain that wholesome family feeling, and partly due to the limitations of island septic systems. Tickets are almost impossible to get unless you stay at Doe Bay Resort in the off-season and buy tickets while you’re there. The folks who put it together also throw the Timber and Timbrrr festivals, which share a lot of the same great music and laid back atmosphere, but without the ticket scarcity.
(I know you’re not supposed to post pictures of other people’s kids on the internet, but I love this picture from Doe Bay Fest several years ago. Whoever this kid is, they’re not a baby anymore, and there’s no way they could be identified from this picture so I hope it’s okay just this once.)