Every Memorial Day weekend, Sasquatch! Music Festival takes over the Gorge Amphitheater for three days of music and windswept hairdos. It's the Pacific Northwest's version of Coachella, but instead of bros with boardshorts and polarized Ray Bans there's an influx of Canadians and breathtaking views of the eastern Columbia River Gorge.
This year Frank Ocean, Chance the Rapper, and Twenty One Pilots will headline, with lineup highlights that include Big Freedia (!!!!), Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires, Kaytranada, Bomba Estéreo, White Lung, and Moses Sumney. The rest of the lineup is unfortunately "meh," with an overemphasis on festival circuit regulars like the Head and the Heart and MGMT.
There's also the annoyingly prototypical dominance of dudely bands in this year's lineup. It's no secret that most big festivals consistently lack female performers (let alone headliners), and after years spent searching for women and non-binary artists on bills, it's pretty disappointing that little has changed. Especially when this year's lineup includes Foxygen, who're apparently back in the indie music community's good graces after recent controversy.
Sasquatch! Music Festival 2017 hits the Gorge Amphitheater May 26-28.