Launched in 2018, this scrappy local fest expanded year after year and now takes over the Crystal for a weekend. The bands are local and folk is loosely defined (when is it not?); everything that could be called indie rock fills out the roster, though there are usually more acoustic guitars than electric. The lineup usually comes in January, not quite a month before the fest itself. 

Put on by the nonprofit PDX Jazz, this is the rambling style of festival that looks more like a two-week season with jazz more of a jumping-off point. Jazz, soul, and more experimental, cross-genre acts make up some 50 performances, spreading across 30-plus venues, including a few headliners at the Schnitz. Tickets and lineup usually go on sale in late fall. 

New for 2026, Soundscape NW (SSNW) is an international fest spread across the Central Eastside and Buckman neighborhoods. Inspired by the early, indie rock days of a certain Austin, Texas, festival that’s gone the way of the tech bro, in addition to a host of live shows, SSNW boasts a vinyl expo, album and poster art galleries, interactive exhibits, and music lab workshops. Buzz started in January but the lineup is still TBA. 

Inching toward 40 years, the Blues Fest is far more than Portland’s best Fourth of July weekend fireworks display. The bill is dozens of performers deep, with big-time headliners—Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, and Lucinda Williams in past years. Look for the schedule and tickets in February. 

PBR’s rock ’n’ roll waterfront weekend has been back for a few years now (the fest and its giant, beer-drinking unicorn disappeared for a few years at the end of the 2010s). It consistently draws bona fide rock stars of yore (Iggy Pop, DEVO) and indie rockers of the moment (Big Thief, Japanese Breakfast). The lineup usually drops toward the end of winter.

Smooth jazz, R&B, soul, funk, blues, and other diverse modes reaching for the bounds of the genre make up the Vanport Jazz Festival. Launched in 2017, the fest is a tribute to the legendary jazz scene that came out of the predominantly Black wartime city that flooded in 1948. 

Aminé started his two-day festival in 2024, essentially inviting his friends and collaborators (rappers, DJs, and R&B artists like Smino, Thundercat, and Kaytranada) to take over the Edgefield lawn for an end-of-summer weekend. Historically, they’ve announced the schedule in May and tickets went on sale in June. 

With Damian and Stephen Marley as headliners, this nationally traveling reggae fest added Oregon to its annual schedule in 2025. The program leans mainstream, with ska crossover bands and a few rap acts, and it’s primarily set up as a camping festival. Look for the lineup in January. 

Americana is the overarching genre guiding the Jackalope Jamboree, started in 2019, with acts playing alt-country, folk, and outlaw country tunes across three stages. Think of it as the free-loving, indie counterpart to the Pendleton Whisky Music Festival’s CMT stadium vibes. There’s camping on-site but you’re also in town in Pendleton with hotels nearby. Lineup and tickets usually go up in mid-October. 

Portland jam band Bodhi Mojo hosts this grassroots camping fest on a remote patch of land about an hour north of Portland, up Highway 30 in Deer Island, Oregon. Who else plays the fest? Jam, funk, indie, and electronic bands with a psychedelic, jammy bent. The schedule usually drops in February, but for a taste, the teaser video on its site is an hour-and-a-half long set from “electronica power trio” Yak Attack.

What began in 1970 as a loosely assembled performance has since blossomed into one of the premier classical music festivals in the country. Most of the two-week season’s nearly 20 shows are at the Hult Center and Beall Hall, on the University of Oregon campus. Though events are separately ticketed (look out for the lineup in February), bundles are available, and programming includes three threads: Bach performances, non-Bach performances, and workshops. 

The whisky sponsor and rodeo stadium are perfect set dressing for the big-name country acts that headline this Eastern Oregon festival (lineup drops in late fall). Started in 2016, organizers say nearly 20,000 folks attend each year, whether Eric Church drew them or the “’90s throwback” acts, like Nelly or Flo Rida. Fancy and rough-and-tumble camping options are recommended; though the official festival is a single day, the kick-off party the day before is nearly as big. 

It’s about 30 minutes out of town, but Pickathon is its own world. Since 1999, organizers have been expanding the folksy rock festival into a woodsy art installation (it moved to its current farm in 2006), with multiple stages, pop-up restaurants in the trees, and so many ways to align your chi. The lineup is out mid to late January; a few big national and international indie bands headline (Courtney Barnett, Portugal. The Man), and the fest has a knack for picking up-and-comers (Geese was there in 2024). 

Per the name, this one falls on the autumnal equinox, and follows a similar, world-building spirit to Pickathon, but the lineup (out in April or May) skews more dancy and psychedelic; Chromeo and Sylvan Esso have headlined past years. Installations named things like Cosmic Drip and Healing Garden fill out the Deschutes County Fairgrounds. Camping is generally the way to go, but you can buy day passes and find somewhere to stay in the area.