To be honest--tbh for short--the organizers of the annual Sasquatch! music festival are probably counting this year as a bit of a disaster.

At the Memorial Day weekend event, high winds got in the way of Sunday's main stage music schedule, though they quieted down in time for Alabama Shakes and The Cure to make their sets. A local wildfire gave a couple hours' scare to the bands and fans keeping an eye on the news and the rising smoke. But the biggest story was the attendance: the Grant County Sheriff's Office has yet to release its annual estimate, but it was clear in the campgrounds and inside the Gorge Amphitheatre that Sasquatch! fell well short of its usual 25,000 or so attendees this year.

Talk backstage and in the press room offered a few theories: the festival bubble, now stretched to dozens, even hundreds, of events saturating the spring, summer and fall concert scene, might be finally popping. Perhaps the Canadian dollar was too weak for northern fans to make the expensive weekend work. And with Sasquatch!'s concert live-stream making its debut this year, maybe staying home just suddenly seemed like a deal.

Hard to say, and Sasquatch! probably won't tell us. But the inconvenient truth for the Festival Industrial Complex is that fewer people equals a better time. For those of us who showed up, Sasquatch! 2016 was a winner: the campgrounds were calmer, lines moved quickly--a major improvement for a festival which struggled with just getting people in the door in 2015--and audiences at every stage seemed comfortable and enthusiastic.

The Oregonian once called Sasquatch! "the biggest frat party in the Pacific Northwest," but to be snobby for a moment, in 2016, it seemed like the folks who arrived at the Gorge had actually heard of some of the bands. Though short on superstars or buzzy reunions, the lineup was a smart collection of rock, electronic and hip-hop artists with the kind of attention to playlist-style discovery that put modern fests on the map in the first place.

With all that said, I made it through three days, a dozen-plus bands and one vegan sandwich to bring you Sasquatch! 2016's best and worst moments, memories and terrible mistakes. Here they are.

The Best:

1. Leon Bridges' hillside set

The vintage soul purveyor's main stage set was cancelled on Sunday, so he and a percussionist picked up their instruments and started playing on the amphitheatre grass instead. A crowd formed quickly, and for those close enough to hear, his performances of "River" and other songs from 2015's "Coming Home" were pure and lovely. Sasquatch! should do one of these every year.

2. Rock music, alive and kicking

As hip-hop makes its claim as pop's dominant form, the most compelling acts at genre-spanning festivals are often the MCs. Not this year, which offered explosive rock from legendary veterans, young breakthroughs and tomorrow's favorites. Yo La Tengo, Savages, Hop Along, Ty Segall and the Muggers, Speedy Ortiz, and Portland's Summer Cannibals each played urgent, ear-blasting sets: just one would've been the thrill of the weekend. And give Sasquatch credit for booking a bill, a rarity in the dude-centric festival world, that reflects the way women have completely conquered 2010s rock.

3. Ty Segall, possible crazy person

Segall, playing a thundering, Black Sabbath-heavy set, came out in a cut-up baby mask, ranted about eating eggs against doctor's orders and somehow ended up wearing a Grateful Dead shirt. None of it made sense, all of it was extremely watchable.

4. Jehnny Beth's crowd work

" Singer" is too tame a term for the Savages leader, who hopped off stage and walked fearlessly into the crowd without ever interrupting her pitch-black wail. Their albums find the UK punks a bit dour: their live set is a celebration.

5. Blind Pilot's return

The Oregon band will release a new album in August after years of absence: if their Sasquatch! set was any indication, the group's sensitive, trumpet-flecked folk-rock deserves a renewed place in the collections of Andrew Bird, Calexico and Decemberists fans.

6. Ruban Nielson's comfy genie outfit

Portland band Unknown Mortal Orchestra performs on the Bigfoot Stage at the Sasquatch! music festival in the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, on May 27, 2016. (David Greenwald/The Oregonian)

If the Unknown Mortal Orchestra frontman was going to play the weekend's funkiest psych-rock set, spacious clothing seemed like a reasonable idea.

7. M83's festival anthems

Playing in front of star-field visuals, the full-band incarnation of the French electronic project delivered candy-colored pop, neon synth climaxes and, of course, "Midnight City," a song made to be played in front of a massive natural formation at dusk.

8. Things we overheard

"Let's do some shots!" "Everybody's doing meth now." "My GI tract is a mess... the only 21-year-old you know who's had a colonoscopy." "We love tequila."

9. The Cure bassist Simon Gallup walking on stage chewing gum

That, and the Cure's entire set.

10. Hip-hop act Vic Mensa just letting Nirvana's "In Bloom" play on stage for a minute

Because Seattle.

11. Friendlier fashion

In the costume parade that is Sasquatch!, I didn't see a single white college kid wearing a Native American headdress this year. Progress!

12. Conner Youngblood's dog

Conner Youngblood's dog, Juneau, steps out for his set at the Sasquatch! music festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, on May 29, 2016. (David Greenwald/The Oregonian)

The very adorable Juneau's brief appearance on the Yeti Stage was probably the first dog guest spot in Sasquatch! history.

13. The Yeti Stage sound engineer, casually vaping during Hop Along's set

Somehow this was the funniest thing that happened all weekend.

14. Vince Staples' kinetic charisma

The Long Beach rapper entered to the hoarse screams of a few stunningly dedicated fans and absorbed their energy like Speedball. Staples seemed like he spent half his set in the air: he definitely spent most of it rapping with talent to burn.

15. The Dump Truck food cart

My favorite part of MusicfestNW 2015 and now a delicious dumpling memory from the otherwise food-desert Gorge. Please come to every Northwest festival.

16. Near-perfect iPhone reception

The real proof that attendance was down this year.

The Worst:

17. A$AP Rocky's egotism

A$AP Rocky and special guests perform on the main stage at the Sasquatch! music festival in the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, on May 27, 2016. (David Greenwald/The Oregonian)

The rapper's main stage performance acted as if he--and not electronic duo Disclosure--was headlining the night, with precious minutes wasted on his DJ's crowd hype and a pair of A$AP Mob affiliates as young fans grew weary in the front row. When he arrived, he mistook arena lighting and volume for charisma and chops. The MC, this decade's great New York hope, still has a lot to prove: Friday was not convincing.

18. Cigarettes, everywhere

I joked over the weekend that the vaping trend was over and the cool kids are back into cigarettes and lung cancer now. After multiple days of dealing with their second-hand smoke, it wasn't funny: this is a four-day, open-air event attended by tens of thousands of people. It's a public health issue. Sasquatch should crack down on it.

19. Sunday's communication breakdown

Sasquatch! did post on its website and social media channels as sets shifted around thanks to the wind danger, but the updates were late and infrequent. Attendees paying hundreds of dollars to see their favorite bands deserved more attentiveness and transparency, especially with a wildfire forcing home evacuations a few miles away.

20. The Kola House

The pop-up bar seemed well-attended over the weekend, but no amount of fresh blueberries and fancy glassware was going to convince me that it's cool that Pepsi is making artisanal cocktails now. Also: poor form to have an illustration of the late Prince, who would've shaken his purple head at this.

21. The $8 vegan tomato reuben sandwich I ate for dinner on Friday

Should've gotten dumplings.

22. The busted press wifi

This didn't ruin anybody's festival except for the journalists struggling to upload recaps and photos on backup hotspots, but I should probably apologize to my bosses now for this month's phone bill.

23. Whoever started playing David Guetta at the campgrounds at 3:30 a.m. on Monday

Loud enough to Shazam from inside my tent. That's not even party-pooping: I stepped out for a look, and Guetta's electronic beats had the squad... sitting in their lawn chairs. Friends, this is why James Taylor exists.

This post has been modified to reflect the following correction: Conner Youngblood's dog's name is Juneau, not Judah.

-- David Greenwald

dgreenwald@oregonian.com

503-294-7625; @davidegreenwald

Instagram: Oregonianmusic