Slideshow

Slide Show: Doe Bay Fest 2014

August 12, 2014

A water taxi connected Doe Bay directly to Anacortes, and shuttles ran to the car ferry that lands on the other side of the island.

Seattle's Industrial Revelation (with Evan Flory-Barnes, left, and Ahamefule J. Oluo) played midday Sunday; Oluo then sat in with fellow Seattle act Cataldo.

A hula hooper plays outside Doe Bay's yoga studio, also home to DJ sets and small band performances.

Boise band Hollow Wood (pictured) played folk tunes at the Otter Cove stage, then were followed by fellow Idahoans Runaway Symphony.

Morgan Travis (left) and Tyler Kellogg of Colorado's You, Me, and Apollo play a mixture of folk, blues, and country. Their set included a cover of Amy Winehouse's "Valerie."

There are usually less than 1,000 attendees at Doe Bay Fest, some of them volunteers that bike or carpool in to camp and pitch in.

Spirits of the Red City came out of Minneapolis to kick off performances Saturday.

Portland band Quiet Life attracted new fans as they played the main stage Saturday.

Doe Bay Fest is as well known for its busking, campfire concerts, and midnight forest jam sessions as it is for headliners.

Buskers sang "Leaving on a Jet Plane" as people boarded the water taxi in Otter Cove, changing the lyric to "'Cause I'm leaving / On a foot ferry..."

Portland's Jacob Miller and the Bridge City Crooners brought their jugband sound to the busker stage Thursday, then hit the main stage on Saturday with period costumes and a washboard instrument.

Doe Bay's signature homespun humor is evident throughout the 33-acre resort.

Saturday night's headline was Thao and the Get Down Stay Down out of San Francisco; a classmate from Thao Nguyen's alma mater, College of William and Mary, waved the school's flag throughout the performance.

Kids rush the giant slip-and-slide constructed in the performance space on Sunday.

Though no acts were scheduled for Sunday, many concertgoers stayed on the island to enjoy Doe Bay's other offerings.

The first act to perform at this year's Doe Bay Fest was Brother For Sale, made up two Orcas Island brothers who busked at the festival for years before becoming official. "Next year they'll probably be on the main stage," said Doe Bay owner Joe Brotherton in his introduction.

Doe Bay Fest is more like a summer camp than a traditional festival—tickets are only sold to visitors who trek out to the Orcas Island resort throughout the year, and a gentle vibe permeates the wooded grounds. (And at the resort's soaking pools, it's a naked vibe.) This year, Cody ChesnuTT and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down headlined the seventh annual fest. Here were our favorite moments.

Orcas Island, Slideshows, San Juan Islands

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Slide Show: Doe Bay Fest 2014

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