The Fractal Forest at Pickathon Music Festival

Organic and futuristic music fest design takes center stage

Deep in the heart of Pickathon Music Festival’s The Grove Neighborhood, something truly wild is taking root, and it’s growing fast. During this year’s festival, get ready to discover “The Fractal Forest.” Imagine a space that’s part dynamic performance venue, part captivating sculpture, and all vision, nestled within the unique environment of The Grove. Conceived by the minds at Scott Edwards Architecture and brought to life through a collaboration with the Home Building Foundation and Bremik Construction, this isn’t just a backdrop for music—it’s a living installation designed to echo the profound rhythms of nature and community.

Location
Happy Valley, OR

Year
2025

The Grove Neighborhood and The Fractal Forest stage’s design are inspired by the infinite, recurring patterns we see in the natural world. The Fractal Forest installation will rise organically from the forest floor, set against a dense, dramatic layer of Douglas Firs, appearing as if it has always been. The interlocking modular frames reach skyward, with delicate tendrils seeming to float gracefully above the stage. With its complex layers and intelligently interlocking forms, the structure explores how dynamic systems can emerge, creating an atmosphere that feels both deeply natural and strikingly futuristic. This modular approach will extend to other neighborhood elements, including the gateway, bar, and furniture, each contributing to a distinctive and immersive experience.

The Grove Neighborhood’s bar (left) and gateway (right) forms echo The Fractal Forest’s interlocking frames, creating a cohesive and immersive experience for festival goers.

Neighborhood elements, like the gateway structure shown left, are designed to disassemble and be repurposed at local shelters as community-building features, like outdoor seating structures, shown right.

What truly makes The Fractal Forest sing is the community powering its creation. Through a vital partnership with MODS PDX and their mentorship program, “Building To Scale”, talented youth from across Portland are gaining hands-on modular construction experience, lending their skills and energy to help shape this unique festival environment. It’s a collaboration that builds not just structures, but also futures.