For the past two years, a music festival called PDX Live has been held in downtown Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square during August. The festival will be returning for its third consecutive run this year, with a promising lineup of bands from all over the country, and even some from across the world.

The festival, hosted by a Pacific Northwest music event company called True West was first held in Pioneer Square in 2022, and has been there every August since.

There doesn’t seem to be much awareness of the festival itself, only the bands that come rolling through. Many students and staff didn’t know about PDX Live’s existence, and an outreach form posted around the school to find people who attended the concert in the past or are planning to attend this year was met with no response.

Junior Vanessa Su attended PDX Live last August to see the popular indie pop artist, beabadoobee, but she wasn’t aware of the festival at the time. “I did not know about PDX Live … I didn’t know that it was part of any music festival or anything, I just thought it was part of her regular tour for her album,” she said.

Su said that her experience at the concert was “really fun” and that beabadoobee was a “great performer.”

Beabadoobee wasn’t the only artist at PDX Live in 2023. That year’s lineup consisted of ten other shows, including other popular artists such as Alex G, Descendents, and Fleet Foxes.

This year, the festival is bringing in bands from close to home on the West Coast, plenty of bands from the East Coast, a band from Canada, and two others from as far as England and Australia.

PDX Live will open with the Washington rock band, Sleater-Kinney, on Aug. 7, featuring guest band Amyl and the Sniffers, who come all the way from Melbourne, Australia. For two weeks straight there will be live music almost every night, leading up to the festival’s finale on Aug. 21 with Sunny Day Real Estate, an emo rock band from Seattle.

The complete list of artists that will be playing at the festival this summer consists of (in order of concert date): Sleater-Kinney with Amyl and the Sniffers, Ween, Descendents, The Japanese House, Sierra Ferrell, Ethel Cain, Yo La Tengo with Built to Spill, Mt. Joy, Waxahatchee, Alvvays, Elle King, and Sunny Day Real Estate.

Every show will be all-ages. Pioneer square is wheelchair-accessible and has ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) seating options available. Tickets are around $50 for most shows with the cheapest tickets being $35 for the band The Japanese House.

Su’s advice to anyone who may be attending a PDX Live show is to wear comfortable shoes, bring a jacket, and arrive at the venue early to beat the line. “Go there and have fun,” she said.