Photo by Matthew Thompson

For 17 years, the Sasquatch! Music Festival has taken over the Gorge Amphitheatre in Vantage, Washington for multiple days of music and arts in arguably one of the most beautiful, scenic views in the world. It began as the vision of founder and producer Adam Zacks, who has continued to curate the festival’s lineup. Today, Zacks announced that he will no longer be producing the fest and that the festival won’t be returning in 2019.

“Sasquatch! will forever remain a tapestry of the people who worked with us,” Zacks said in a press statement. “The artists who inspired us, and the varied experiences of the fans who attended it… of friendships made, engagements, hilltop weddings, permanent tattoos, once in a lifetime collaborations, weather events both treacherous and magnificent, at least one very public conception, and, of course, hundreds of awe inspiring performances. My humblest gratitude to all of you.”

The future of the festival at present time is unclear. In his statement on leaving the festival, Zacks provided some astounding numbers including 1,026,095 tickets sold, 1,313 bands booked, and $723,436 donated to nonprofits. It’s been quite the journey for Sasquatch!, which began in 2002 as a single day festival headlined by The String Cheese Incident, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. In 2006, the fest expanded to three days over Memorial Day Weekend and expanded to four days from 2011 to 2013. Throughout their tenure they’ve booked landmark acts like Outkast, Bjork, R.E.M., The Cure, Kanye West, Beastie Boys, The National, Nine Inch Nails, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Kendrick Lamar, Florence and the Machine, and more. Neko Case holds the record for most times performing at the festival between her solo sets and with The New Pornographers.

Revisit our coverage from previous Sasquatch! weekends.