Image Credit: Whitney Pastorek for EW.comMy Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, Nada Surf, the National, the Hold Steady, Broken Social Scene. That was your lineup Saturday at the 2010 Sasquatch (exclamation point!) music festival… and those are just the bands that played after 5:30 p.m. Sunday featured LCD Soundsystem. She & Him (pictured) showed up on Monday, sandwiched between Drive By Truckers and Passion Pit and Band of Horses and MGMT.

Does that sound like your iPod come to life? Then you might be into this music festival, Mixers.

The annual Memorial Day weekend throwdown at the aptly-named Gorge Amphitheatre in Central Washington draws a stellar lineup every year, making it completely worth burning your valuable vacation days to attend — at least in this weathered EW.com correspondent’s opinion. Smaller grounds mean lower attendance and plenty of personal space even when it’s sold out; the desolate location and occasionally extreme weather conditions (simultaneously getting rained on and sunburned) mean a minimum of concert dilettantism; the giant hill you have to scale to find food means it’s an effective cardiovascular workout every time you eat a hot dog. The happy hippie environment is the perfect place to let your freak and/or Canadian flag fly — animal hats, tails, and ears abound, as does body paint and the occasional Batman costume. And the view! Oh, the view… got kind of wrecked this year, now that they’ve wrapped the mainstage with thick black masking. It’s ostensibly a safety situation — the Gorge is located near what I can only assume is a very lucrative wind farm — but how I missed looking straight through the stage to the landscape. Still, the view to the left and right was impeccable as usual. Why not spread your blanket out on the hill and stay awhile? READ FULL STORY »