I got to experience another Pacific Northwest outdoor concert venue last week when I visited McMenamin’s HIstoric Edgefield for a Brandi Carlile concert. The grassy amphitheater, which seats around 4,000 spectators, provides ample reason to visit this site, some 18 miles east of downtown Portland, just off Interstate 84 as it heads into the scenic Columbia River Gorge. But Edgefield is so much more than just another summertime concert venue. Built in 1911, Edgefield Manor anchored the county’s poor farm, where those down-and-out could live and work the farm, raising crops, poultry and livestock to feed themselves and supply the county jail as well. The residents represented every ethnicity and faith, and during the Depression, as its population swelled, Edgefield housed individuals skilled in a wide array of crafts and the arts. After WWII, the site became more of a nursing home/rehab center, but by the the early ’80s, the last of the shrinking population moved out and the place was boarded up. It sat empty and vandalized for the remainder of the decade and was slated for demolition when Portland’s own McMenamin brothers saw its potential, found financial backing, and bought the place. Since 1974 they had been opening pubs and relished the building up of communities centered around that convivial atmosphere. They envisioned Edgefield as a self-contained “village” offering so much more than a pint and pub food. Since then they’ve “rescued” many historic buildings in the Northwest and given them new life as lodging and entertainment venues. Today, Edgefield’s 74 acres contain lodging, dining, drinking and recreational options that make it a unique and entertaining destination resort. Here reside a winery (est. 1990, with some vineyards on site), distillery (est. 1998), brewery (beers and hard ciders produced), spa, seven bars, restaurants, movie theater with food and drink service, golf (2 par-3 courses, one of 12 holes, the other of 20; with holes 43 to 84 yards in length, it sounds like golf I could handle!), a soaking pool and organic gardens. Art pops up everywhere, and there’s an onsite glass blower and pottery works as well as shops and galleries. Accommodations include rooms with private baths or shared baths and hostel-style rooms. There is certainly enough to do to fill up a weekend stay; something I’ll have to keep in mind for a future trip to Portland. I was impressed with the organization and logistics set up for concert-goers. The gates to the venue opened at 5 p.m., but folks were lined up for hours before that. They visited in line or marked their spots with lawn chairs and wandered about the property and sampled various libations. Because temps were in the lower 90s, we stuck to the shade with our water bottles and then filed in as the gates opened. Seating was all general admission, lawn seating, with the “bowl” being rather shallow but quite wide, surrounded by large trees providing welcome shade to most of the audience by late in the day. Booths selling McMenamin’s wines, ales and ciders along with nonalcoholic drinks as well as food (vegan and gluten-free options, included) surrounded the concert site. “Facilities” were limited to a long double row of porta-potties with hand-washing stations; early on they were clean and well-stocked, I chose not to visit later in the evening! We thoroughly enjoyed the opening act, Baskery, three Swedish sisters with almost no Scandinavian accents and excellent musicianship and rockin’ skills. Brandi Carlile and her band always put on a great show, and despite warnings that it might take an hour or more to get out of the parking lot, we stayed through the last encore number. Happily, the parking lot crew proved as efficient as everyone else at Edgefield, and we were headed west to Portland on I-84 just 20 minutes after climbing into our car. The concert season is at an end for this year, but I’m eager to head back out to Edgefield soon and explore all it has to offer . . . but I’ll be checking out next year’s concert calendar when it comes out, too. — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor