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ОглавлениеPORTLAND AREA FESTIVALS
PORTLAND AREA FESTIVALS
More than half of Oregon’s population of just over 4 million people lives in the Portland metropolitan area—nearly 2.4 million residents. So it stands to reason that Portland and its conjoined satellite communities host about half of the state’s festival events. They run the gamut from the benign to the bizarre and many of them center on beer; after all, Portland ranks number one on just about everybody’s top beer cities in America list. The fact that you can buy a local ale at just about any cultural affair in Portland only adds to the city’s reputation as one of the West’s best metropolises for food, fun, and finery.
The many different kinds of festivals held annually in and around Oregon’s largest city—from superb performing arts and film festivals to renowned ethnic festivals to simple, joyous neighborhood street fairs—certainly reflects the cultural diversity of Portland and its suburbs. The city hosts some astonishingly massive humdingers. The Waterfront Blues Festival, for example, draws well over 100,000 people to listen to some 150 stage acts each year. Portland also offers unique events, such as the Northwest’s only saké festival, a fruit beer festival, and a variety of other intriguing festivals.
Portland and its surrounding communities can be rather daunting for festival goers in one respect: parking can range from challenging to downright frustrating, depending on the location, and popular events, naturally, compound the problem. Many metro-area festivals recommend public transport—TriMet buses and MAX light rail. Most buses have bicycle racks, and Portland is a bike-friendly city—many festivals provide bicycle corrals. Festivals held in the suburbs tend to suffer fewer parking problems.
As might be deduced by the numerous ethnic events held in Portland, the local culinary scene includes every worldwide cuisine, as well as many eateries with a Northwest flair. Whether you’re visiting the Portland area for one of its many festivals or taking in a festival while there for other reasons, take time to explore. Information for visitors is available from Travel Portland, (877) 678-5263, www.travelportland.com. Portlanders are known for their friendliness and enthusiasm—conversations with locals can easily lead to great tips on under-the-radar places to eat, imbibe, and visit.
NW COFFEE BEER INVITATIONAL
Portland
Goose Hollow Inn, 1927 SW Jefferson Street
Late January
www.facebook.com/coffee.beer.378/
Home of the “best Reuben on the planet,” historic Goose Hollow Inn—a Portland landmark—is also headquarters for the NW Coffee Beer Invitational, a unique craft brew festival in which more than a dozen regional breweries are tasked with creating a freshly brewed beer with locally roasted coffee—the perfect convergence of two of Oregon’s most obvious addictions.
It’s the only beer festival of its kind and a must-do event for Northwesterners who love exploring the delights of the region’s countless beer styles—and best of all, these coffee-inspired beers are one-of-a-kind creations, concocted just for this festival; you won’t find them on the shelves of your local market. This competitive but congenial event pits some of the most creative brewing minds in the business against one another, with expert judges ultimately determining the winner, who is announced in the late afternoon. Throughout the day, attendees can taste all of the coffee beers, and even ciders. This lively beer fest, which runs from noon to 7 pm on a Saturday, occurs in the big, cozy outdoor tent at Goose Hollow Inn, with live music provided by local artists. Attendees can order food from the impressive Goose Hollow Inn menu (and yes, the Reuben really is that good, as are the other handcrafted sandwiches). A modest entry fee to the Invitational includes a festival logo glass and eight tasting tickets (ticket sales at the door only).
NW Coffee Beer Invitational features one-of-kind ales brewed with locally roasted coffees.
Significantly, Goose Hollow Inn was launched in 1967 by iconic Portlander Bud Clark, best remembered for being the two-term mayor of the city, from 1985 through 1992. He was also a neighborhood activist, an early advocate of neighborhood associations, and co-founder of the Neighbor newspaper, which became the Northwest Examiner. To this day, Goose Hollow Inn is still owned and operated by the Clark family and is widely lauded as a classic, comfortable, inviting neighborhood pub.
SABERTOOTH PSYCHEDELIC STONER ROCK MICRO FEST
Portland
McMenamins Crystal Ballroom and Ringler’s Annex, 1332 W Burnside Street
Early February
Not surprisingly, the annual Sabertooth music festival is a McMenamins event—brought to you by the brewpub kingdom whose founders have always acted a bit outside the box, from helping to change Oregon law in the early 1980s to literally creating the craft brewery scene we enjoy so much today, to preserving nearly two dozen historic structures big and small and converting them into artistic pub masterpieces.
Sabertooth celebrates psychedelic culture in general and psychedelic rock music in particular, the genre inspired by the mind-altering states produced by psychedelic substances—notable greats in this style of rock music, which appeared in the 1960s, include iconic acts such as the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, Velvet Underground, the Who, and even the Beatles.
Sabertooth annually assembles nearly a dozen of the hottest regional bands of the genre for a two-day rockfest at the beautiful and historic McMenamins Crystal Ballroom in Downtown Portland. At the same time, McMenamins Ringlers Pub, located on the main floor of the Crystal Ballroom, serves special beers created onsite by a collaborating team of McMenamins brewers specifically for Sabertooth—samples are free, and when you find the one you like best, you can buy a pint (there’s free admission to the tasting event at Ringlers, with the brewers on hand to talk beer, rock, and more). Of note, although this event celebrates psychedelic culture, no illegal activity of any sort is permitted. Also, visibly intoxicated persons are not allowed on the premises.
Tables full of swag at Sabertooth Psychedelic Rock Fest.
Both one-day and two-day tickets to Sabertooth are reasonably priced and available in advance (recommended) via the festival website or at the door. There are two price levels: general admission and VIP, which includes early concert entry, and close-to-stage seating in a reserved area with its own bar access. Lodging options are legion in the area, of course, but a room at McMenamins Crystal Hotel (www.mcmenamins.com/crystal-hotel), home to fifty-one guest rooms, a saltwater soaking pool, and the outstanding Zeus Café, is conveniently located two blocks away.
PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Portland
Various venues
February
For more than four decades, the Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) has delivered a tremendous billing of films from around the world, showcasing the work of both established and up-and-coming filmmakers, and providing an amazingly diverse wintertime event across the Rose City. The festival features dozens of films representing myriad genres, shown over a two-week period in February at some half-dozen Portland movie houses, including iconic landmarks such as Bagdad Theater, Laurelhurst Theater, and Cinema 21, as well as Whitsell Auditorium, which is home to the Northwest Film Center, host of this much-anticipated festival.
Each year, PIFF selects a wide range of films—powerful dramas, thought-provoking documentaries, whimsical comedies, unique animated creations, kid-friendly movies, and much more. The festival website categorizes the films and provides a synopsis of each, making it easy to decide what movies you want to see. Included in the lineup is a late-night series of films screened at the beautiful Bagdad Theater (opened in 1927 and renovated by McMenamins in 1991); the late-night movies, special treats for adventurous devotees of late-night thrills, include genre-bending films that provocatively push boundaries. Moreover, PIFF annually highlights the works of many first-time and up-and-coming directors from around the world, providing an outstanding opportunity for attendees to enjoy films difficult to find outside of special festivals like PIFF. All told, PIFF annually screens more than 100 films. Audience members at PIFF screenings enjoy the rare privilege of voting for their favorite works to decide winners of the Audience Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best New Director, Best Documentary, and Best Short Film.
A full house enjoys a screening at the Portland International Film Festival.
All films are screened in their original languages with English subtitles unless otherwise noted in the PIFF program. Modestly priced general-admission and student-price tickets to individual films are available in advance (see website) as well as the day of at the theater box offices pending availability of seats—though advance purchase assures you’ll have a seat, as many films sell out. The PIFF also offers ticket bundles as well as full festival passes. Most films are shown twice during the festival, but some are shown only once—all the more reason to leave nothing to chance by purchasing tickets in advance.
The film festival kicks off with an opening-night extravaganza featuring a special film screening, and co-hosted by a handful of well-known regional wineries, breweries, and food vendors. Tickets for opening night (advance purchase only via the website) sell out very quickly when they go on sale midwinter.
BREWSTILLERY FESTIVAL
Portland
Stormbreaker Brewing, 832 N Beech Street
Late February
www.stormbreakerbrewing.com/brewstillery.html
The pairing of food and beverage—the supposed art of choosing just the right drink to complement a particular edible—may well reach its zenith in the Northwest. Culinary aficionados, or “foodies,” often go to extreme or perhaps excessive lengths to match just the right wine with favorite foods. And it hardly ends with wines; foodies also seek the perfect harmony between cuisine and beer, spirits, saké, and even ciders.
Such enthusiasm for pairing is part of what makes the annual Brewstillery Festival so much fun—it’s partly a whimsical nod to the infatuation with pairing in the Northwest and entirely an enthusiastic celebration of the region’s vibrant craft beer culture and burgeoning, increasingly creative distilled spirits infatuation. In this one-of-a-kind event, the brains behind Stormbreaker, Dan Malech and Rob Lutz, invite nearly twenty of the region’s best brewers and a like number of the state’s top distilleries to team up for the perfect pairing of ale and spirit. Attendees enjoy the unique opportunity to taste the results, sampling the duos in the form of a four-ounce beer pour and a quarter-ounce sampling of the associated distilled spirit.
Brewstillery Festival features intriguing pairings of ales and spirits.
Modestly priced tickets to the event are available by advance purchase and at the door, and include a logo beer tasting glass and ten tasting tickets; VIP tickets include both a branded beer glass and branded whiskey glass, fifteen tasting tickets, and early entry to the event, which is held at Stormbreaker Brewing, a Portland favorite perhaps best known for its Mississippi Red dry-hopped red ale. The brewery’s excellent food from a diverse menu is available throughout the Brewstillery Festival, which runs from noon to 8 pm. Leading up to Brewstillery, Stormbreaker runs a special mission in which the public is asked to help find the festival mascot, Tank-O; look for him at the tap and tasting rooms of the festival participants starting in January. Once you find him, take a photo and post to Instagram with #wheresTankO. Prizes are awarded for those who find the most Tank-Os.
HILLSDALE BREWFEST
Portland
Hillsdale Brewery & Public House, 1505 SW Sunset Boulevard
Late February
www.mcmenamins.com/hillsdale-brewfest
Not only is Hillsdale Brewery & Public House among the oldest of the nearly five dozen McMenamins establishments, it also hosts the longest-running McMenamins festival. This popular Portland landmark first opened its doors in 1984 as the Hillsdale Pub, following closely on the heels of McMenamins Barley Mill and Greenway Pub. Then in 1985, thanks to tireless lobbying at the Oregon State Capital by the McMenamin brothers, Mike and Brian, and a cadre of other now-legendary Oregon brewers, the legislature passed a landmark law that made it legal both to brew and sell beer on one property. McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery was fired up, and in October of 1985 it became Oregon’s first brewpub since Prohibition and the birthplace of several of the now-classic McMenamins beers: Hammerhead, Ruby, and Terminator. To this day, Hillsdale Public House displays the original brew sheet from its first brew.
Moreover, since 1995, Hillsdale Public House has hosted the annual Hillsdale Brewfest in which McMenamins brewmeisters send their latest, greatest concoctions to compete for the coveted championship belt. Patrons determine the winner: the pub offers up trays of beer samples, arranged from lightest to darkest, and then festival goers decide who deserves the coveted title. The beers cover the spectrum of brew styles, ranging from Hefeweizen to oatmeal stout, barleywine to smoked amber ale, and beyond—the beermaking autonomy of McMenamins, wherein brewers at the various facilities are allowed and encouraged to experiment and create, is on full display in this people’s-choice-style event. Each taster casts one ballot that lists his or her top three choices (and beware the shameless vote-mongering by the competing brewers, who are only too happy to mix with the throngs of attendees and lobby for votes).
The winner of the Hillsdale Brewfest enjoys the honor of assisting in the development of the beer that will represent McMenamins at the Oregon Brewers Festival later in the year. The Hillsdale Brewfest has no admission fee; the sample trays, with about ten beer samples, typically cost about $10 each. The pub has a full food menu, and the event runs from 11 am until 1 am on a Saturday.
A table full of tastings at the popular Hillsdale Brewfest held at iconic Hillsdale Brewery & Public House.
LUCKY LABRADOR BARLEYWINE FESTIVAL
Portland
Lucky Labrador Beer Hall, 1945 NW Quimby Street
Early March
Since 1994, Lucky Labrador Brew Pub has served as a model for the neighborhood pub concept, each of its locations providing a relaxed and convivial hangout for Portlanders who love great beer, good times, and fun food. And just a few years after opening its doors, this popular brewery launched one of the first and very few barleywine tasting events in the nation and the only one in Oregon, the annual Lucky Labrador Barleywine Festival held at the Lucky Lab Quimby Brew Hall in the Slabtown District just north of Downtown Portland.
Despite the potentially confusing moniker, barleywine is not a wine, not even in part; the wine part of the name derives from the high alcohol content of these beastly beers—typically from 8 to 12 percent, nearly that of many wines. Barleywines are big, bad, bold ales that come in two forms, with lots of middle ground; so-called American-style barleywines tend to display some hoppy bitterness in the flavor profile, while British-style barleywine beers tend to lack the bitterness, tending towards the malty end of the spectrum—traditionally at least. In the ever-creative Northwest brewing culture, such demarcations are definitely blurred, and barleywines come in an amazing array of flavor profiles, not to mention colors.
And there’s no better place to explore all those barleywine incarnations than the Lucky Labrador Barleywine Festival, which annually assembles more than sixty different big bad beers, with twenty-five on tap at a time, representing a wide range of Oregon brewers, from longtime favorites to little-known nano-breweries. Luckily for beer fest junkies, this event remains a bit under the radar, even in its third decade, so crowds are modest and lines minimal.
The Lucky Labrador Barleywine Festival features high-octane specialty ales.
The easy-on-the-wallet entry fee includes a commemorative festival glass and four tasting tokens, with additional tokens available for purchase. No worries if you can’t settle on a high-octane barleywine to your liking—you can always find a great Lucky Lab beer (brewed onsite), with plenty to choose from, to suit your palate, and the excellent food choices include traditional-style pizzas, zesty salads, and classic deli sandwiches. The barleywine festival runs Friday and Saturday, noon to 10 pm both days.
CIDER RITE OF SPRING
Portland
Location varies
Late March
www.nwcider.com and www.facebook.com/nwcider/
Oregon’s rapidly growing cider industry has not only spawned many innovative and interesting cider varieties but also spurred the launch of a variety of festivals that celebrate these fruit-based fermented beverages that have taken the Northwest by storm.
One of the best of these cider extravaganzas is the Cider Rite of Spring, presented annually by the Northwest Cider Association and awarded “Best Northwest Cider Festival” by Sip Northwest magazine in 2015. Held in late March, at a time when cherry and other fruit trees are blooming in Western Oregon, Cider Rite of Spring celebrates both Northwest cider and the arrival of spring, and features some three dozen cider producers serving about 100 different cider varieties. The event is a virtual who’s who of regional cider makers, with past participants including such stalwarts as 2 Towns Cider, Bull Run Cider, Finnriver Farm & Cidery, Portland Cider Company, Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Tieton Cider Works, and many others, both big and small, from all over the Northwest.
In addition to a bedazzling array of ciders, the event offers featured food vendors and a dedicated pop-up retail store where festival attendees can buy their favorite ciders to take home. Cider Rite of Spring is a 21-and-over event, and the entry fee includes a festival logo glass and tasting tickets. VIP passes include access to catered tastings of special showcase ciders. Tickets are available in advance (see the event website or Facebook page) and at the door. The Cider Rite of Spring outgrew its original location, with capacity crowds throughout the event; see the event website for news on the current venue.
Tasting tickets ready for action at the annual Cider Rite of Spring.
NANO BEER FEST
Portland
John’s Marketplace, 3535 SW Multnomah Boulevard
April
You’ll feel as if you’re giddily sharing secrets among close friends. The secrets are tiny-batch ales produced by the micro-est of microbrewers, some of them on the rise ultimately to higher outputs, some of them happy to remain in the nano-brewery realm. Either way, when you attend the Nano Beer Fest, launched in 2008, you get to experience craft beers that few people ever have an opportunity to sample.
The lineup each year features nearly three dozen cutting-edge brewers, whose nano-batch offerings run the gamut of beer styles. With each annual incarnation, Nano Beer Fest welcomes a who’s who of Northwest brewers you’ve never heard of, with recent attendees including the likes of Ridgewalker Brewing, The Hoppy Brewer, Leikum, Humble Brewing, Hop Haus, Wolf Tree Brewery, Shattered Oak, Bent Shovel Brewing, Pono Brewing, Cooper Mountain Aleworks, and many more, with the lineup changing annually. It’s a tough, competitive business, and nano breweries (not to mention large breweries) come and go often in the Northwest, but for those starting up and those that survive, the annual Nano Beer Fest serves as a showcase event and includes small-batch cider and mead producers.
Nano Beer Fest spotlights some of the region’s smallest ale producers.
Held outdoors at John’s Marketplace, this 21-and-over-only festival runs for two days, usually a Friday and Saturday, from midday to early evening. Tickets (usually around $20) include a commemorative glass and sample tokens, with extra tokens available for purchase. Attendees have a chance to win raffle prizes throughout the day. For advance ticket purchase, public transportation details, and parking information, visit the event website.
NORTHWEST ANIMATION FESTIVAL
Portland
Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard
Mid-May
If your experience with animation begins and ends with the Cartoon Network, the Northwest Animation Festival will open your eyes to an amazingly artistic world of independent animation artists and their wonderful films that run the full spectrum of genres. Without million-dollar budgets, these films rarely reach a broad audience and that’s why this five-day film fest extravaganza presents more than 200 animated films each year (and then continues the fun in Eugene a week later), screening both new works by acknowledged masters and art from talented amateurs.
Showcasing all forms of animation—hand drawn, computer generated, stop motion, experimental techniques, and more—Northwest Animation Festival screens films at Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre (and Eugene’s iconic Bijou Cinema), with social gatherings and special events held at The Magnolia wine bar across the street. Animated films screened during the festival include many international works, and the lineup each year features every imaginable theme—comedy, action, adventure, drama, romance, and more. The festival also offers special events with animators and their work, allowing attendees an intimate look at the processes involved in making animated characters come to life.
Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre hosts the Northwest Animation Festival.
Tickets for Northwest Animation Festival are available through the event website, with both three-day and full-festival passes available that include admission to any and all films and special events. Alternately, you can review the festival schedule and purchase tickets to the categories that interest you most. Advance purchase is wise, as the shows tend to sell out; leftover tickets are available for purchase at the box office.
Northwest Animation Festival is the brainchild of animator Sven Bonnichsen: in 2007, Portland hosted the Platform International Animation Festival, screening more than 400 films and generating substantial enthusiasm around the country. But no follow-up event occurred, spurring Bonnichsen to action. His goal with Northwest Animation Festival was to create a large local community of impassioned enthusiasts and inspired artists, and an internationally recognized hub of animation culture.
TUALATIN RIVER BIRD FESTIVAL
Sherwood
Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, 19255 SW Pacific Highway
Third weekend in May
www.friendsoftualatinrefuge.org
Located on the outskirts of Portland just ten minutes west of busy Interstate 5 and 2.5 miles north of Sherwood, 1,856-acre Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge is one of about a hundred urban national wildlife refuges in the country. Situated within the floodplain of the Tualatin River, the refuge preserves a rich diversity of habitat types—verdant riparian corridors, mixed woodlands, expansive seasonal wetlands, savannah-like grasslands, and more. The refuge attracts a wide variety of migratory and wintering water birds, as well as myriad nesting bird species, with a total count of some 200 species, not to mention more than 50 species of mammals and 25 species of reptiles and amphibians. Anchored by a large visitor center with interpretive displays, photo displays, overlooks, a huge viewing window with spotting scopes, a nature store, and more, the refuge features a network of trails with options for visitors of all abilities, along with a host of educational activities and special events.
American widgeon are among the many birds that use Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge.
One of the biggest events at the refuge is the annual one-day Tualatin River Bird Festival held each May, which offers a host of fun educational activities for all ages. The festival is organized and hosted by the Friends of Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the mission of the refuge, in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Guided birding tours begin first thing in the morning at 5:30 am and thereafter, providing visitors a chance to learn to identify a variety of species by sight and sound. Tours are led by US Fish and Wildlife Service staff who work on the refuge as well as various guest birding experts.
The main festival begins at 10 am and includes a host of activities that kids can really sink their teeth into: building birdhouses (or bat or butterfly houses) to take home, archery and fishing lessons, decoy painting, gyotaku (Japanese fish painting), BB gun range, fish-migration putt-putt golf, and more. A festival favorite are the live birds of prey from Audubon Education Birds, presented by expert handlers and wildlife rehab specialists. Throughout the day, a variety of exhibitors provide educational offerings, with many local and regional conservation and resource-management groups and agencies represented. All the events and activities—including the guided bird walks—are free. Just show up and enjoy a wonderful day on one of Western Oregon’s great national wildlife refuges. Activities vary from year to year and a listing of these can be found on the Friends website by April of each year.
Parking for the festival is offsite (see event website for locations). From the parking area, shuttle buses run continuously to the refuge between the hours of 5 am to 5 pm. TriMet (route 93) also stops at the refuge headquarters.
UPPER CLACKAMAS WHITEWATER FESTIVAL
Estacada
Carter Bridge Day Use Area, 17 miles southeast of Estacada on SR 224
Late May
www.upperclackamasfestival.org
Launched, so to speak, in 1984 by the Northwest Rafter’s Association, the Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival is a weekend of fun, exciting (and safe) whitewater activities, annually rallying hundreds of attendees and competitors who share a love of boating swift rivers in a variety of watercraft. Whitewater enthusiasts comprise a passionate and dedicated family, and this weekend-long festival has become a popular and high-spirited gathering. Even nonboaters enjoy watching the competitive events for rafts and kayaks of various kinds, as well as stand-up paddleboards.
The river races begin Saturday morning and feature a variety of classic events: oar boat slalom, paddle boat slalom, cataraft slalom, drift boat slalom, inflatable kayak mass start, hard-shell kayak mass start, inflatable kayak slalom, and the Boater X Kayak Race, in which heats of four kayakers compete for points toward the Western Whitewater Championship Series. All the races course through multistep Carter Falls, a Class IV drop that requires advanced whitewater skills, and qualified boaters can register in advance or onsite for the races (the modest race entry fees must be paid in cash onsite).
The whitewater fest also includes several unique and entertaining events. One of the most popular is the innertube slalom race, which draws lots of enthusiastic onlookers: racers in inner tubes challenge Carter Falls, trying to hit as many slalom gates as possible. Another crowd favorite is Val’s Volleyball, in which cataraft experts must try to keep “Wilson,” a giant white inflatable, between the pontoons while navigating the slalom course—and Wilson can’t be touched by hand, only by boat and oars. The Cataraft Rodeo also draws enthralled crowds eager to watch some of the region’s most skilled cat-boat drivers perform stunts while navigating the course, with judges awarding points for surfing holes, trick maneuvers, and showmanship.
Competitors run the course at the Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival.
In addition to the races, the Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival includes a variety of free clinics and demonstrations on Saturday, and after the races, attendees and participants are invited to a picnic and beer gardens with live music until 9 pm. The festival’s vendor section features the top names in whitewater gear, along with various river advocacy groups. The festival venue, Carter Bridge Day Use Site, and the swift, beautiful Clackamas River, is seventeen miles upstream (southeast) from Estacada via State Route 224.
PORTLAND ROSE FESTIVAL
Portland
Various venues
Late May to mid-June
Oregon’s largest and most storied festival, the Portland Rose Festival occupies more than two weeks with a vast array of activities and events that annually draw more than a million attendees to celebrate eclectic Portland and spotlight the city’s diverse culture. Launched in 1908, the Rose Festival began as a publicity campaign for the then-burgeoning city, and more than a century later this incredible multipronged event, which seamlessly melds contemporary flair with palpable nostalgia, was proclaimed Portland’s official festival. Portland Rose Festival includes three popular parades, a massive carnival-like fair, numerous concerts featuring well-known musicians, the ever-popular Rose Festival Queen coronation, several running events, and much more.
Rose Festival kicks off on a Friday afternoon with the opening of CityFair at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, with opening-day fireworks following in the evening. Running each weekend of the festival, CityFair is a sprawling family-friendly carnival with myriad vendors, carnival rides, games, live music, and much more (including a Portland Rose Festival museum exhibit). The music lineup is announced on the Rose Festival website and over the years has included an intriguing mix of artists and music genres. Opening weekend also brings the whimsical Rose Festival Point One Run, in which runners (and walkers, strollers, amblers, and anyone else) race a grand total of 528 feet, all within the bounds of CityFair; creative apparel is encouraged, and participants must register in advance, as is the case with all festival races. The serious running begins the next day, Sunday, with the Rose Festival Half Marathon. The festival offers two additional foot-power events: the Starlight Run—Oregon’s largest fun run—features some 5,000 costumed competitors racing not only to break the tape at the finish line but also to garner prizes for best individual and group getups (and the costumes tend to be highly decorative and immensely creative). The Starlight Run follows the 3.1-mile Starlight Parade route and the entire course is lined with cheering spectators—250,000 of them. Even more spectators line the streets for the 4-mile Grand Floral Walk preceding the Grand Floral Parade. Throughout all the festival footraces, participants are treated like champs by event staff and onlookers alike.
The aforementioned parades, three of them in total, are integral to the Portland Rose Festival. The first, and one of the most popular festival events, is the Starlight Parade, which offers funky, eclectic fun for everyone. From traditional marching bands and flood-lit floats to glow-in-the-dark umbrellas and unique hand-built entries, you’ll see the best of Portland’s diverse community groups (and surrounding Northwest region) together in one whimsical pageant. The Starlight Parade continues a longtime festival tradition from the early 1900s, when illuminated floats built on electric trolley cars made their way through the city on trolley tracks. Today, participants light up the night with approximately 100 illuminated entries along a 2.25-mile route. The parade draws more than 325,000 spectators to Downtown Portland.
The Starlight Parade is one of many events included in the Portland Rose Festival.
A week later comes the much-anticipated Grand Floral Parade—a beloved highlight of the festival for more than 100 years. As its name suggests, the Grand Floral Parade is regaled in floristry, or what the Japanese call ikebana, the artistic arrangement of flowers. This parade courses for four miles, draws hundreds of thousands of spectators, and features a bedazzling lineup of colorful floats, most all of them bedecked in vibrant flowers that so define the Rose City. Prior to the parade, the Rose Festival Queen coronation is held in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, culminating three months of activities for the high school women who comprise the Rose Festival Court.
Scheduled to fall between the two extravagant parades, the annual Junior Parade is also a longtime Rose Festival tradition in which kids, dressing in costume, transform wagons into floats, decorate their bikes with colorful flowers, or just parade with their pets (and parents). Elementary and middle school marching bands fill the Hollywood District with song, and dance teams add swirls of color to the celebration.
The Portland Rose Festival also features a variety of waterfront activities, including hosting the annual Dragon Boat Races, a Chinese cultural tradition in which paddle teams race beautifully crafted wooden boats festooned with colorful dragon head designs. Portland’s races annually draw nearly 100 teams from around the country and beyond. Far more whimsical is the family-friendly Milk Carton Boat Race, a Rose Festival standard since 1973, in which boaters compete for prizes in numerous categories in homemade hand-powered craft that float only by means of recycled milk cartoons and jugs. The ultimate prize is the coveted Best in Show milk can trophy. The Rose Festival also includes Fleet Week, during which vessels from the US Navy, US Coast Guard, and Royal Canadian Navy moor at the waterfront and invite civilians on board for scheduled ship tours. Fleet Week provides a platform for the public to thank veterans and active-duty personnel while learning about the various watercraft employed by the armed services.
Throughout its three-week run, the Portland Rose Festival offers many other activities and events, and the entire extravaganza comes to life thanks to a small, dedicated professional staff and legions of volunteers. The festival schedule, with complete details about all the events and copious useful details for attendees, is available on the festival website. Few citywide festivals in the nation can boast of such longstanding tradition and residents of the city are justifiably proud of the exciting, colorful, congenial Portland Rose Festival.
PORTLAND HORROR FILM FESTIVAL
Portland
Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard
Early June
www.portlandhorrorfilmfestival.com
Did you grow up mesmerized by Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, and the ubiquitous Vincent Price? Did you revel in the blockbuster horror films of the ’70s and ’80s—The Omen, The Exorcist, Halloween? Do you remember the cult classics of the ’80s, such as The Evil Dead, Lifeforce, and Night of the Comet? Do the horror spoofs—Scream, Scary Movie, Shaun of the Dead—tickle your funny bone? Or maybe your nightmares are spawned by the millennial masterpieces, movies such as The Ring, Paranormal Activity, and 30 Days of Night.
No matter how you like your spooky movies, the Portland Horror Film Festival will enthrall you with an outstanding lineup of under-the-radar independent works representing every subgenre of scary films—funny, gory, nerve-wracking, and flat-out scary, and all cooler and more innovative than anything you can see at the multiplex. Independent filmmakers are the ones creating fresh looks at horror, and you can see the best films from the horror masters of tomorrow at the Portland Horror Film Festival. From satanic guitars to zombie children to sweet, sweet revenge, this enthralling film fest has something for everyone, including films from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Italy, the Philippines, Greece, Norway, France, Australia, Turkey, Iran, and more.
Portland Horror Film Festival features myriad films along with Q&A sessions with filmmakers.
Beginning Thursday evening and running through Saturday, the event screens all movies at the historic Hollywood Theatre, packing some four dozen films into a three-day fright fest. Each year, the festival selects several full-length features and numerous short films that range from a minute or so to about half an hour in length, providing chills and thrills in masterfully concise movies. In addition to the movies themselves, the Portland Horror Film Festival includes casual meet-and-greet events and post-movie Q&A sessions with visiting filmmakers, along with a Saturday evening wrap-up party and awards ceremony.
Modestly priced festival tickets deliver a lot more bang for the buck than regular movie tickets, and attendees can choose between single-day tickets or three-day full-festival tickets. Full-event tickets provide access to all films and events throughout the weekend, and all tickets are available for early purchase at the event website.
RYE BEER FEST
Happy Valley (southeast of Portland)
Happy Valley Station, 13551 SE 145th Avenue
Mid-June
www.beerheard.com/rye-beer-fest
What exactly is a rye beer? Well, as the name might suggest, it’s a beer in which some portion of the barley malt is replaced with rye (usually malted rye), a lesser-known but similar grain. But there’s a lot more to it than that, especially in the beercentric Northwest, and that’s what Rye Beer Fest founder Kerry Finsand aims to teach ale aficionados at this flavorful and educational beer event held each year as part of the citywide Portland Beer Week.
Rye beer aficionados sample the offerings at the Rye Beer Fest.
Rye Beer Fest brings the region’s best rye beers—upwards of two dozen of them—under one roof, and perhaps the first thing attendees learn is just how much wonderful variation occurs in the flavor profiles of rye beers coming from brewers throughout the state. Rye beers can be earthy, tart, or spicy, and this family-friendly event (21-and-over for beer sampling/drinking) features a curated tap list consisting of a variety of beer styles utilizing this impactful grain. Expect rye beers ranging from saisons and IPAs to the traditional German style of Roggenbier. Each year, Rye Beer Fest features a wide assortment of breweries, from longstanding favorites to newly launched up-and-comers. Past lineups have included the likes of Stormbreaker (Portland), Ordnance (Boardman), Vagabond (Salem), Sedition (The Dalles), Bent Shovel (Oregon City), and many more.
Entry to the festival is free, but an inexpensive ticket package is needed to drink beer and includes four drink tickets (eight tickets with advance purchase online) plus the official event tasting glass; additional tickets are available for purchase (most beers cost one ticket per four-ounce sample and four tickets for a glassful). Food is available in eclectic abundance thanks to the eighteen food carts at Happy Valley Station, a you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it innovative, 3,800-square-foot, temperature-controlled food-cart pod.
Oregon’s only rye beer festival—and one of the few anywhere in the world—not only provides a joyous educational celebration of these unique ales, but also serves the community by donating proceeds to New Avenues For Youth, a local nonprofit that supports homeless and at-risk youth in Portland.
CIDER SUMMIT PDX
Portland
The Fields Neighborhood Park, 1099 NW Overton Street
Mid-June
Portland’s eclectic Pearl District hosts the region’s largest cider festival each June as Cider Summit PDX gathers a truly massive assemblage of local, regional, and international ciders and cider cocktails, with some 150 choices available from dozens of producers—truly a who’s who of cideries. Oregon’s ever-growing cider industry is well represented at this casual and friendly Friday/Saturday event, with the state’s best-known cider brands pouring samples alongside the small-batch producers. Each year, the lineup is announced on the event website, and one of the most alluring aspects of Cider Summit is its mercurial growth: each new year brings dozens of new ciders from established producers and new players alike—it’s one-stop shopping for ciderites who love the ever-expanding range of ciders produced in the Northwest and beyond.
Cider Summit PDX, its many tents forming a giant circle at The Fields Neighborhood Park (consult the event website in case the venue changes), also features a variety of local food vendors, along with live music provided by well-known regional artists. In fact, the Cascade Blues Association, which helps to produce the event music lineup, is one the beneficiaries of Cider Summit PDX. Another of the beneficiaries is DoveLewis Emergency Pet Hospital, and Cider Summit PDX is dog friendly, featuring a special Dog Lounge (as usual in dog-friendly Portland, bring baggies, a leash, and only friendly furred friends). Also, during the festivities, numerous cideries compete in the Fruit Cider Challenge, the winner being crowned by vote of attendees.
Cider Summit is an outdoor festival held during June in Portland’s Pearl District.
Tickets are available online and at a variety of bottle shops and other retail shops in Portland (see the list on the event website). Cider Summit PDX (a 21-and-over-only event) offers both general admission and VIP tickets, both at modest prices. General admission tickets (available online and at the gate) include a commemorative tasting glass and a set of tasting tickets; VIP tickets (available online only) include extra tasting tickets and special early entry on Friday. Attendees can buy additional tickets onsite (bring cash). Cider Summit PDX is just one incarnation of Cider Summit, the brainchild of Alan Shapiro, founder of SBS Imports: if you miss the Portland event or just can’t get enough, Cider Summit Seattle occurs in September and Cider Summit San Francisco occurs in April.
FESTIVAL OF BALLOONS
Tigard
Cook Park, 17005 SW 92nd Avenue
Late June
For a weekend each June, a blue summer sky brims with colorful hot-air balloons in morning’s limpid air, painting a serene and indelible panorama over Oregon’s verdant Willamette Valley—this is the Festival of Balloons in Tigard. Balloon pilots from throughout the region converge on expansive Cook Park, on the banks of the Tualatin River, to put on a kaleidoscopic aerial show that can be seen for miles. But the up-close view is by far the best, and attendees soon discover that the Festival of Balloons offers much more than the flame-powered aircraft.
The balloons launch early in the morning while the air is calm—from 5:45 to 6:15—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Get to the park early to witness this colorful spectacle and mingle over coffee with balloon aficionados and fellow attendees. The festival doesn’t offer balloon rides, but you can connect with pilots who offer such commercial services, and even sign up for an early-morning tethered ride on a first-come, first-served basis. As balloons dot the skies over Tigard, the festival’s many other activities kick off, including an extensive vendor section featuring local and regional artisans and craftspeople along with commercial exhibitors, as well as the Funtastic carnival fun center brimming with entertainment for all ages. The festival main stage offers entertainment for kids during the afternoons and live music in the evenings. Food vendors offer numerous choices, and the walk-around beer gardens allow adults to buy a pint or two and peruse the vendors rows while imbibing. On Friday and Saturday evenings, perhaps the festival’s single most popular event unfolds: a variety of balloon pilots return to the field to fire up the burners on their tethered balloons in the annual Night Glow, sublimely illuminating the festival grounds to the delight of the crowds.
Fanciful balloons take to the air during the Festival of Balloons in Tigard.
The Festival of Balloons also features a six-on-six soccer tournament, eating contests, the annual Festival of Cars classic auto show, and the Twilight 5K run/walk and Twilight Run; the mile course is especially popular with kids—it’s an untimed event and T-shirts for the event are available in child sizes only. The three-day admission pass to the Festival of Balloons is less than $10, and other than registration fees to enter the Twilight Run, soccer tournament, or car show competition, only the carnival rides cost extra. Bring cash for food and drinks; many of the vendors are set up for credit card transactions as well. Festival parking is available on the Tigard High School field for $5, which benefits Tigard High School (THS) Breakfast Rotary & THS Boosters. The parking entrance is at the THS Swim Center Parking Lot. There is a short walk down the Cook Park hill to the festival grounds, or you may ride the shuttle for only $1 (benefits American Cancer Society/ Relay for Life). The Festival of Balloons is produced by a nonprofit organization and raises funds for many nonprofit groups in Tigard.
SHERWOOD WINE FESTIVAL
Sherwood
Old Town Sherwood
Late June
In the heart of the Willamette Valley, which was one of the earliest settled areas in the Northwest at the onset of America’s westward expansion in the nineteenth century, Sherwood boasts a rich and, at times, trying history—two fires, 1896 and 1911, severely damaged the then-burgeoning little community. At the time, Sherwood had recently seen its largest employer, a brickyard built and owned by four Portland businessmen, suddenly cease production after it had brought more than 100 jobs to the small town, and many supporting enterprises. At the time the brickyard opened in 1890, the little town out in the wooded countryside was called Smockville, named for and by entrepreneur and town founder, JC Smock, who, in 1885, laid out the first nine square blocks of what would become Sherwood.
Medal winners at the intimate Sherwood Wine Festival.
To this day, these blocks comprise Sherwood’s downtown district, which in the past fifteen years has undergone significant and rejuvenating revitalization. Happily situated at the doorstep to the Willamette Valley’s famous wine country, Historic Old Town Sherwood now boasts a variety of intriguing places to eat and imbibe, including 503 Uncorked, the local wine bar that hosts and sponsors the Sherwood Wine Festival held each summer.
This outdoor Saturday festival brings together a fine collection of local wineries, from longstanding favorites to little-known boutique wineries whose vintages are difficult to procure owing to limited production. Alongside excellent wines to please any palate, the festival also hosts several breweries and a variety of local food vendors, all in a relaxing atmosphere, and usually under a bright sunny sky, and always to the accompaniment of live music throughout the day. Modestly priced tickets (purchase on the event website or onsite) include a commemorative tasting glass. Launched in 2016, the Sherwood Wine Festival remains intimate, an appealing alternative to the numerous massively busy wine events around the region.
SAKÉ FEST PDX
Portland
Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr Boulevard
Late June
The only event of its kind in the Northwest, Saké Fest PDX celebrates the world of saké in all its diversity and finery. Saké, sometimes inaccurately called “rice wine,” is a unique beverage created through a fermentation process in which rice starch is converted to sugar, which is then converted to alcohol by yeast. Saké, which has its roots in China more than 4,000 years ago, was ultimately perfected by the Japanese beginning more than 2,000 years ago. As early as the Japanese began refining their saké-brewing techniques, the beverage served as a drink of family and friendship and celebration; saké has been an integral part of Japanese society for centuries, and its popularity continues to increase worldwide. Today, some 1,800 brewers produce about 14,000 different sakés worldwide, mostly in Japan.
Saké Fest PDX gathers together some of the finest imported saké, along with saké brands brewed right here in the United States, including Oregon. The annual lineup of brands includes all the traditional styles: Junmai, Junmai Ginjo, Junmai Daiginjo, Honjozo, Nama, Genshu, and Nigori. But this extravagant and joyous celebration hardly ends there. Along with every traditional style and grade of saké from numerous producers, guests can try infused saké, umeshu (a liqueur made from ume fruits), saké cocktails, and more. And in addition to an amazing array of fine saké, including many premium and rare brews, Saké Fest PDX serves up a wide array of culinary delights, allowing attendees to learn why saké is far more than a beverage consumed with sushi. In fact, like wine, different saké styles and flavor profiles pair exceptionally well with a broad range of foods and this intriguing festival provides ample opportunity to match flavors and textures.
Saké Fest PDX is one of the few festivals in the world dedicated to this popular beverage.
Saké Fest PDX, launched in 2010, is a one-day ticketed affair held during the evening hours at the Oregon Convention Center ballroom (venue is subject to change, with all annual details as well as advance ticket sales on the event website). Each year a limited number of early-admission tickets is made available; they allow attendees to enjoy easy unfettered access to the food and beverage tasting tables an hour earlier than regular-admission ticket holders. Ticket prices include all samples of both food and saké at all sampling stations as well as a souvenir tasting glass. A limited number of tickets is available at the door, but advance purchase via the website is a good idea (adults 21 and older only—proper ID required for admission).
ORGANIC BEER FEST
Portland
Overlook Park, 1599 N Fremont Street
Last full weekend in June
Northwesterners love their local beers and certainly harbor a deep appreciation for sustainability, including organic food and beverage production, and both concepts converge at the Organic Beer Fest, an annual four-day celebration designed to raise awareness about organic beer and sustainable living. In recent incarnations, this popular and intriguing event has offered nearly sixty organic beers, ciders, and mead, including many brews from small-batch producers whose limited distribution assures that sampling their beverages is a rare treat.
Held in beautiful Overlook Park, this outdoor event also includes live music, food vendors, sustainability-oriented vendors, and nonprofit groups. Earth friendly, the festival includes onsite compost and recycling containers; volunteers working the event wear organic cotton and hemp T-shirts, and all event signage is reusable. Organic Beer Fest also happens to be probably the most family-friendly brew festival in the state (minors are allowed with their parents, although only attendees 21 and over can sample and drink beer, of course), and delivers one of the most amicable, relaxed atmospheres of any beer event.
Drinking requires purchase of the current year’s commemorative festival cup for a nominal fee and then drink tokens for $1 each (cash only). The festival begins on Thursday afternoon, runs most of the day and into the night on Friday and Saturday, and continues from noon to 5 pm on Sunday. Organic Beer Fest offers a bike corral for cyclists, and public transportation (TriMet) is easy and convenient. However, the festival has no designated parking area and Overlook Park has only minimal parking, making TriMet, with a major station directly in front of the park the best option for many attendees (see the event website for details); limited curbside parking is available in the adjacent neighborhood, but attendees are warned not to park in the Kaiser Permanente lots.
Held in beautiful Overlook Park, Organic Beer Fest assembles a great lineup up Northwest organically produced ales.
PORTLAND CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL
Portland
The Fields Neighborhood Park, 1099 NW Overton Street
First weekend in July
www.portlandcraftbeerfestival.com
Portland, as well as Oregon in general, not to mention the entire Northwest, and for that matter all of the West, is neck deep in craft beer festivals—and why not? Nothing beats a great brew fest for camaraderie, conviviality, and of course craft beers. The Portland Craft Beer Festival (PCFB) celebrates all three—it’s a relaxed, inviting event featuring an intriguing lineup of amazing ales representing myriad styles. But unique among the many beer festivals, PCFB features only beers (plus a few ciders and wines) brewed within the city limits of Portland.
Portland is closing in on 100 craft breweries (plus a handful of cideries, mead makers, and wineries), and in recent years they’ve been incredibly well represented at PCBF, with about fifty of them participating. Portland—voted America’s best beer town by various media on several occasions—loves its craft beer and has more breweries than any city in the nation; the city’s hopheads and malt maniacs quickly embraced PCBF, and it now draws capacity crowds.
The three-day Portland Craft Beer Festival is one of the city’s most popular beer events.
The fest runs for three days, beginning at noon Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and running until 10 pm on Friday and Saturday, and 7 pm on Sunday. Sunday is family day, when children can attend with their parents and enjoy a variety of outdoor lawn games. Because PCBF has become so justifiably popular, it’s wise to buy advance tickets (see the event website). The festival tasting cup with ten beer tickets costs about $25 (one ticket per four-ounce sample, four tickets per full pour), and additional tickets are $1 each. With an event wristband, attendees can return any day. The PCBF also offers a VIP package, which costs a bit more, and includes a special mug plus fifteen tickets that earn six-ounce samples. Availability is limited and VIP tickets may not be available at the door, so get them in advance online. The venue—The Fields Neighborhood Park—is located on the north side of the Pearl District. Street-side parking fills quickly and the nearest public pay-lots are several blocks away, so get there early or consider public transport (TriMet or MAX light rail).
WATERFRONT BLUES FESTIVAL
Portland
Tom McCall Waterfront Park by Hawthorne Bridge
Early July
Portland’s Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, presented by First Tech Credit Union, is a massive musical extravaganza spanning five days and culminating in a July 4 fireworks display over the Willamette River. Since its quiet kickoff in 1988, this incredibly popular festival owned and operated by the Oregon Food Bank has raised more than $10 million and collected more than 1,000 tons of food—all to help alleviate hunger and its root causes in Oregon and Clark County, Washington.
This award-winning festival annually hosts more than 100 music acts, ranging from the biggest names in Blues to up-and-coming local singers and bands. This is largely a shoulder-to-shoulder event, particularly when well-known musicians take the stage. Each year’s lineup is announced months in advance on the event website. The festival offers a variety of multiday passes, each with a different set of benefits. Five-day passes start at about $40 (with early bird pricing), making the Waterfront Blues Festival the best entertainment value for the July 4 weekend.
The festival offers myriad food and beverage vendors. Festival attendees should consider bringing a fold-up chair, and should check out the “What to Bring” section of the event website before venturing to Waterfront Park. Parking is always a challenge for an event of this magnitude, with curbside parking nearby nearly impossible; however, about a dozen pay-to-park lots (SmartPark and City Center Parking) are located within a reasonable distance. Naturally, many festival veterans have learned to get downtown early in the day and relax over a cup of coffee and perhaps breakfast somewhere in the area after finding parking as close as possible to Tom McCall Waterfront Park, the site of the event. Attendees also park across the river, on the east bank, and walk across the Hawthorne Bridge. Public transportation—MAX light rail and TriMet—is another excellent option, and TriMet runs extra buses to accommodate the event. Bicycle riders can safely leave their bikes at either of two designated and volunteer-staffed parking locations.
Waterfront Blues Festival annually features more than 100 music acts playing to huge crowds at Waterfront Park.
Whether you’re a hardcore Blues fans or a casual listener, the Waterfront Blues Festival is an event not to miss. Many attendees plan entire vacations around this colossal celebration, and each year people come from every state in the union and dozens of foreign locales, traveling from afar just for this extraordinary party. For visitors planning to spend most of the week in the Portland area for this event, consult Travel Portland, (877) 678-5263, www.travelportland.com, for information about lodging and the countless sights and activities you can enjoy in and near Oregon’s largest city.
ROADHOUSE BREWFEST
Hillsboro
McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, 4045 NE Cornelius Pass Road
Mid-July
www.mcmenamins.com/roadhouse-brewfest
The annual Roadhouse Brewfest is a good old-fashioned outdoors summer shindig featuring around twenty different beers from McMenamins as well as other area breweries, along with a handful of craft ciders, live music from noon into the night, tours of the brewery and distillery, and guided history tours of the property, all under the beautiful July sun in this out-of-the-way, incredibly well-renovated historic property west of Portland.
Meet, mingle, and chat with brewers, enjoy food from Imbrie Hall’s summertime menu, and let the kids run around all crazy-like. A not-to-be-missed summertime tradition for many Pacific Northwest beer lovers, this free-admission, laid-back party boasts a few beers crafted specifically for the event.
Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, acquired by McMenamins in 1986, is an amazing property with a lengthy history: in 1843, Kentuckian Edward Henry Lenox (1827–1905), having arrived via the Oregon Trail, staked a claim to the property (years later, his memories of the journey were published as a small book titled Overland to Oregon). Around 1850, Robert Imbrie (1831–1897), who had reached Oregon a few years earlier via ship sailing around Cape Horn, acquired the Lenox farm. He built the three-story, Italian Villa-style home that still stands today.
McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse hosts the laid-back Roadhouse Brewfest.
GRESHAM ARTS FESTIVAL
Gresham
Historic Downtown District
Mid-July
www.greshamoregon.gov/ArtsFestival
Heading through Gresham on busy Division Street or Powell Boulevard, it’s easy to miss the city’s beautifully refurbished historic downtown district that is sandwiched between the two main arteries leading to and from nearby Portland to the west. But Gresham’s eclectic downtown area offers myriad excellent options for dining, shopping, and imbibing, and also hosts a variety of special events throughout the year, including the longstanding Gresham Arts Festival, an engaging celebration featuring events for all ages.
The festival kicks off on Friday evening at 5 pm with the Art Under the Stars, where attendees can join festival artists and stroll the downtown area into the night, checking out the shops, enjoying a glass of wine, and perusing the silent auction that benefits Gresham Outdoor Public Art, all to the accompaniment of live music. Then on Saturday morning at 9, the festival proper begins, with more than 150 juried artisans filling the downtown streets with an array of unique handcrafted art; live cultural and musical performances continue throughout the weekend, and Gresham’s shops and restaurants throw down the welcome mats.
Gresham Arts Festival holds the Guinness record for the largest display of chalk pavement art.
The Kids’ Village at the centrally located Gresham Arts Plaza offers all sorts of free fun activities for children, including face painting, music, and the Children’s Fountain, and kids can join adults in creating the epic Chalk of Fame pavement chalk murals—a feat that set a Guinness World Record in 2015 for the largest display of chalk pavement art, subsequently beaten by a Canadian event, and then reclaimed by Gresham Arts Festival in 2017; be sure to sign up in advance on the festival website to participate in this free artistic endeavor, which goes on all day, from 9 am to 5 pm.
The Gresham Arts Festival culminates in the popular Gresham’s Got Talent event held Saturday evening from 6:30 to 9:30 to showcase the wide array of talented entertainers in the community. Featuring celebrity judges, along with local food and drink, this lively event draws throngs of festive onlookers, and provides the perfect nightcap to a wonderful community arts celebration.
PORTLAND SLAVIC FESTIVAL
Portland
Ventura Park, 460 SE 113th Avenue
Midsummer
www.slavicfestivalportland.org
Have you ever tried kishka or borscht? Pierogi or pljeskavica or plov? How about bryndzové halušky? If not, it’s time to attend the Portland Slavic Festival, where you can explore the world of traditional Slavic cuisine, not to mention Slavic art and culture in beautiful Ventura Park. In addition to delectable Slavic foods available from myriad vendors, this joyous celebration features nonstop live music and performing arts, as well as a variety of workshops and seminars, all designed to highlight Slavic culture and its significant contributions to Portland’s harmonious coalescence of myriad ethnic groups. As such, the Portland Slavic Festival aims to attract people from all walks of life, whether to learn about Slavic history and lifestyle or to celebrate their own Slavic heritage.
Slavs comprise continental cultures tied together by a common linguistic family and ethnicity, and traditionally hail from Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Slavs are subdivided into Western Slavs in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, and Lusatia; Eastern Slavs, primarily in Russia, Belarusian, and the Ukraine; and South Slavs, from Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. As early as the 1860s, Slavic immigrants, primarily Russians at that time, had found their way to Oregon and the Northwest, but the largest waves of immigrants arrived starting in the 1970s after the Soviet government relaxed emigration laws for some religious groups. Today the East European Coalition estimates that some 150,000 immigrants from former Soviet countries now live in the greater Portland area, and Russian is now the third most-spoken language in Oregon, behind English and Spanish.
Portland Slavic Festival is popular for its food, cultural events, and sporting competitions.
At this free-admission summertime festival dedicated to community and harmony, attendees can not only relish in traditional foods from Russia, Serbia, Armenia, the Ukraine, and more, but also revel in kaleidoscopic dance routines and other stage shows. The Portland Slavic Festival also features a popular soccer tournament with various divisions; consult the event website for specifics.
OREGON BREWERS FESTIVAL
Portland
Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 300 SW Naito Parkway
Last full weekend in July
It seems almost incredible that a pioneering micro-brew festival could successfully launch in Portland in 1988—a time when Oregon was home to a mere seven craft breweries and the entire nation had only 128 craft breweries. All of them were invited to that very first Oregon Brewers Festival, billed as “the first gathering of and exhibit of independent brewers in the United States.”
Twenty-six breweries from six states showed up, and the event drew far more attendees than its organizers anticipated. Now, more than three decades later, this five-day extravaganza draws a crowd that may soon surpass 100,000 people and attracts dozens of breweries—more than ninety in recent years. It reigns as one of the biggest and best brew fests in the country. In addition to every imaginable style of beer available by sample and by the glassful, the festival includes half a dozen outstanding food vendors, ongoing excellent live music, beer-related vendors, beer memorabilia displays, home-brewing information and demonstrations, a beer writers tent, and the Crater Lake Soda Garden with complimentary handcrafted soda for minors and designated drivers (minors must be accompanied by a parent).
Sampling and drinking beer requires the one-time purchase of a souvenir mug for a very reasonable price (there is no admission charge at the gates). Wooden beer tokens, $1 each, are required for samples; past festivals pricing has been one token for a taste and five tokens for a full mug of beer. Both mugs and tokens are available at a dedicated booth near the main entrance at SW Oak Street and Naito Parkway (cash only/ATMs on sight). During big events like this in Downtown Portland, parking can be brutal. The nearest Smart Park lot is located at SW Naito and NW Davis Street, and other public pay-lots are not too far away. Public transportation saves the headache of finding parking and then walking (or hiking, depending on how far away you end up parking), and the MAX line drops off only one block from the festival at SW First and Oak Street. The festival also has a staffed onsite bike corral where you can park your bike for free.
For craft-beer aficionados, this grandiose event can easily consume an entire day or even two or three days, so plan accordingly—in fact, given the massive list of available beers, you’d be doing yourself a disservice not to dedicate at least a full day to sampling from the amazing selection.
Oregon Brewers Festival, which celebrated 30 years in 2018, draws huge crowds to Waterfront Park and features dozens of regional breweries.
TUALATIN CRAWFISH FESTIVAL
Tualatin
Tualatin Community Park, 8515 SW Tualatin Road
Early August
www.tualatincrawfishfestival.com
Can’t make it to the huge crawfish festival in New Orleans? Worry not; the annual Tualatin Crawfish Festival is a big deal, too, founded in 1951 and annually drawing more than 15,000 people who relish not only the amazing food—consuming about 1.5 tons of crawfish each year—and all-around gaiety, but also in the myriad activities that range from competitive to whimsical. This must-see extravaganza features crawfish served in a variety of ways, along with plenty of other food choices, and adults 21 and over can wash down the cooked crustaceans with a craft beer from any of the regional breweries participating in the beer garden.
Of course no crawfish celebration would be complete without a crawfish-eating contest, and at the Tualatin Crawfish Festival it’s a fan-favorite event in which contestants have a mere fifteen minutes to cram as many crawfish down their gullets as possible, eating both tail and claw meat. It’s one thing to win the event but quite another to challenge the record of eating 170 crawfish, a mark that has stood since 1972 (preregistration is required for the eating contest, with details on the festival website).
The Tualatin Crawfish Festival is entirely family friendly and features a dedicated CRAWkids Zone offering numerous engaging activities, such as a dunk tank, rock wall, building area, and more. The festival also features balloon art, face painting, a water balloon toss, magician performances, sack races, carnival games, and a cornhole tournament. Even well-behaved dogs get in on the action—creatively costumed canines (in theme, of course) are welcome at the festival. Early Saturday morning, the starting guns sound for the Kids’ Run, Crawfish Crawl Relay, and Crawfish Crawl 5K and Half Marathon (race participants receive an event shirt, a medal, sponsor-provided prizes, and even a beer at the finish line for adults). In the relay, teams of four can choose to run or walk, with each team member running three legs or walking two legs of the 2.04-mile course on forested park trails.
Crawfish—aka crawdads and crayfish—are, of course, the star attraction at the Tualatin Crawfish Festival.
Tualatin Crawfish Festival also features a vendor’s village with an eclectic mix of products and activities producing a spirited and interesting Saturday Market–style experience. The festival opens late Friday afternoon, with live music beginning midevening and continuing through Saturday. Annually the event hosts a variety of well-known musicians, with past entertainers including such luminaries as Curtis Salgado, Lisa Mann, and Norman Sylvester. Annually the specific mix of activities at Crawfish Fest varies, but this lively celebration always offers all-ages fun and entertainment aplenty. The deservedly popular festival culminates with a terrific fireworks show on Saturday evening. The festival draws lots of people, so parking options include the old Haggen’s store lot at 8515 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road, or you could park at Cook Park and walk through the park to get to the festival.
SPIRITSFEST
Portland
Portland Saturday Market, Waterfront Park, 2 SW Naito Parkway
August
www.portlandsaturdaymarket.com/events
Have a drink, catch a show, shop local.
Okay, sign me up—especially for the “have a drink” part of that trifecta because in this case, the drinks come from local craft distillers. Spiritsfest, held at the Rose City’s iconic Portland Saturday Market, highlights innovative Portland-area distillers who are making a mark not only in Oregon but throughout the Northwest and beyond. At this popular yet surprisingly intimate summer festival, attendees get to meet the makers of some of the region’s best distillers and not only discover what they are making and bottling but also learn how to use these craft spirits to create mouthwatering cocktails of all kinds.
Spiritsfest at Portland Saturday Market celebrates the Rose City’s vibrant craft distilling scene.
Each year the mix of participating distillers changes a bit, but they all arrive ready to serve up their signature cocktails and samples of their distilled spirits, including small-batch whiskies, rums, vodkas, gins, and more. The distillers sell signature cocktails, and their spirits by the bottle, at the event. Past incarnations of Spiritsfest have hosted such stalwarts in the Portland scene as Bull Run Distilling, Indio Spirits, Miru Vodka, Thomas and Sons Distilling, Vivacity Spirits, Big Bottom Whiskey, Eastside Distilling, and Wild Roots Spirits. The event is 21 and over, and admission is free.
Operating since 1974, Portland Saturday Market is the largest continually operating outdoor arts and crafts market in the nation. Located in Portland’s historic Old Town, the Market is the city’s the most popular shopping destination for local handcrafted goods. Shoppers and browsers relish the unique opportunity to meet more than 350 Northwest artists and craftspeople who create the art they’re selling. An interactive map on the Portland Saturday Market website allows you to peruse all the vendors and search by product type. Live local music and myriad exotic foods top off this remarkable Saturday and Sunday event.
FESTA ITALIANA
Portland
Pioneer Courthouse Square, 701 SW 6th Avenue
Late August
According to author Charles Wills in his 2005 book Destination America, about 25,000 Italian immigrants had arrived on American shores by 1870, largely from Northern Italy—people displaced and impoverished by the wars of unification and independence during the Risorgimento. But within a few decades, between 1880 and 1924, more than 4 million Italians immigrated to America, largely spurred on by devastating poverty in Southern Italy and Sicily. Like other immigrant groups of the time, Italians arriving in America sought opportunity for a better life and many eagerly embraced westward expansion. By the early 1900s, Oregon, and Portland especially, had a burgeoning Italian population—so much so that until urban renewal in the early 1960s, Portland had a thriving Italian business district.
Marionettes are among the most popular attractions at lively Festa Italiana.
Today, Italian culture continues to deeply influence the city and the nation at large, from the foods we love to many everyday words and phrases. Portland’s annual Festa Italiana, launched in 1991, celebrates Italian culture and heritage and its influence on America and Portland. Festa Italiana, which annually attracts perhaps thousands of people, features incredible food from local restaurants that offer their takes on dishes familiar to most Americans, to Italian regional specialties that demonstrate the amazing depth and creativity in Italian cuisine. Accompanying all the terrific foods are numerous Italian wines and beers. Nonstop entertainment at Festa Italiana features not only live musicians but also dancers and other performers, even marionette puppeteers (loved by the children who attend), all specializing in cultural expressions of the arts, for which Italy has long been known.
This spirited three-day festival also features a popular bocce competition on Sunday. Bocce, of Italian origin, is somewhat akin to lawn bowling; it has been described as a combination of bowling, shuffleboard, and Skee-Ball. One of the world’s most popular games, bocce is played with eight large spherical balls, four balls per team, with each team’s balls differing in color so they are distinguishable (see the Festa website to register).
Festa Italiana, which is free to attend and family friendly (21 and over for the beer and wine gardens) and envelops Downtown Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square each August, also includes various Italian American organizations selling Italian foodstuff and other products. Opening ceremonies occur Friday at noon, followed by the popular wine-grape stomp and pizza-tossing competition. The fun lasts well into the night, with featured musicians taking the stage throughout the evening. Each day Festa Italiana runs from 11 am to 11 pm, and fills the square with buoyant crowds.
SIDEWALK CHALK ART FESTIVAL
Forest Grove
Main Street
Third Saturday in September
Chalk, concrete, and sunny summer days go hand in hand. However, kids doodling on the driveway barely hints at the versatility of this medium that so many artists find appealing. Perhaps it’s the wide range of chalk colors and the way they blend so seamlessly in the hands of a skilled artist. Or maybe it’s the ephemeral nature of drawing on this outdoor canvas, knowing that the artwork cannot survive the rain or the hose or the shuffle of feet. Whatever their motivation and inspiration, artists of all ages and abilities flock to the Valley Arts Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival, which has transformed Forest Grove’s eclectic Main Street into a giant kaleidoscopic mural each September since 1991.
Beginning at 8 am on the third Saturday of September, chalk artists take to the street, literally, to weave their beguiling magical tapestry of shapes and colors. The sidewalks are quickly transformed into beautiful works of creative expression. Anyone can take part in the fun, no matter their age or artistic skills, and this popular festival draws throngs of onlookers who enjoy watching the many different drawings taking shape throughout the day and often stroll the downtown blocks after the event to see the wonderful artwork. Kids love to get in on the action alongside many talented established artists, including a select group of featured artists announced late each summer in advance of the event.
Amazing artworks come to life on city sidewalks during the Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival in Forest Grove.
The festival is held rain or shine, though pleasant late-summer weather frequently prevails; in the event of rain, many artists employ pop-up tentcanopies or umbrellas to forestall the inevitable as long as they can. In addition to their imaginations, artists and aspiring artists should bring knee pads, rulers, blending brushes, and any other supplies they need. The entry fee for artists is minimal, and members of Valley Art get a discount; registration fees include a tray of richly pigmented chalks and a square of Downtown Forest Grove sidewalk for the day. There is no entry fee for onlookers. Preregistration begins the Wednesday prior to the festival at Valley Art Gallery, 2022 Main Street in Forest Grove.
The event runs until 4 pm and includes ongoing entertainment suitable for all ages. It is partially funded by a grant from the community enhancement project, and proceeds from the festival help fund scholarships for Forest Grove High School students who will be continuing with their art studies in college. It also benefits the Valley Art Association’s children’s art classes. The Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival is noncompetitive—no art contest, no judging. It’s all about the art, the community, and the camaraderie.
DOGTOBERFEST
Portland
Lucky Lab Brew Pub, 915 SE Hawthorne Boulevard
Mid-September
www.dovelewis.org/dogtoberfest
Iconic Portland brewery Lucky Labrador Brew Pub opened in 1994, and the next year founders Gary Geist and Alex Stiles hatched the idea of Dogtoberfest for their first anniversary celebration. Then, a year later in 1996, they realized this event could be a valuable and spirited annual fundraiser, so they invited nonprofit DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital to partner with them in the event as the beneficiary. This dogcentric celebration proved to be a big hit, and by the time its twentieth anniversary rolled around in 2015 Dogtoberfest volunteers had bathed about 9,000 dogs and raised nearly $200,000; and those totals keep expanding—to the tune of about $20,000 per year—as the public has warmly embraced this amusing and convivial festival held each September, usually a time of pleasantly warm late-summer dogwashing weather in the Willamette Valley.
Dogtoberfest, which includes a popular dog wash, is a terrific fundraiser for the DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital.
Central to Dogtoberfest, of course, is the dog wash itself: bring your four-legged buddy, invite your family, and get ready to get wet, all in the name of a great cause, as proceeds and donations go to the DoveLewis Blood Bank, which provides dogs and cats with more than 500 lifesaving blood transfusions every year. DoveLewis, established in 1973, is the region’s only nonprofit twenty-four-hour emergency and critical-care and specialty animal hospital. The idea for the hospital sprung from well-known kennel owners, dog breeders, and groomers Dove and AB Lewis. Before her untimely death at age 54 in 1972, Dove Lewis and Dr. Richard Werner had hopes of establishing an overnight animal hospital but could not find financial support. But after Dove’s death, her devoted husband, AB, encouraged by Werner, used money he had intended to donate as a bequest to instead open the animal hospital.
Nowadays, thanks to this wonderful collaboration between Lucky Labrador Brew Pub’s founders and DoveLewis, dogs and their owners enjoy a terrific celebratory festival in the form of Portland’s biggest dog wash—probably one of the biggest anywhere. In addition to dog washing, grooming, and nail trimming, attendees enjoy live music, a variety of vendors, great food, and outstanding beer—including the special Dogwash Pale Ale.
VERNONIA SALMON FESTIVAL
Vernonia
Hawkins Park
Early October
www.vernoniahandsonart.org/salmon-festival/
Though its twentieth-century calling card was logging and lumber milling, the pretty, little, off-the-radar town of Vernonia actually started as an isolated farming community near the Nehalem River in the mid-1870s, founded by a handful of early settlers—Clark Parker, John and Nancy Van Blaricum, Ozias Cherrington, and Judson Weed (for whom the nearby town of Weed is named). They named the town Vernona after Weed’s daughter, but a clerical error during incorporation made it Vernonia. In those days, the Nehalem River and its tributaries annually drew massive runs of salmon and steelhead—a legacy that this close-knit community honors today with its annual Vernonia Salmon Festival.
Each October the Salmon Festival, held at Hawkins Park, celebrates not only the annual run of fall chinook salmon but also local agricultural, art, and community cohesion. The Salmon Festival offers activities for all ages and is great for children, with lots of hands-on fun: photo boards, art projects, scavenger hunts, pumpkin carving, scarecrow making, and even trout fishing in a special stocked pond. Moreover, one of the key sponsors of the event, the Upper Nehalam Watershed Council, brings ever-popular Claudia the Chinook for kids to explore: Claudia is a twenty-foot-long hollow replica of a salmon, and inside is a hands-on educational display about salmon habitat. Children get to climb in and out of her and learn more about salmon, as well as watch the real thing—live chinook salmon back from the ocean to spawn—in nearby Rock Creek.
Claudia, a key part of the Vernonia Salmon Festival, is a 20-foot-long hollow salmon replica with interpretive displays inside.
The festival grounds also host numerous vendors offering unique handmade crafts, artworks, functional wares, foods (including salmon), and more, along with nonprofits and a variety of agricultural and historical displays. Throughout the day, live music entertains attendees. Hands-On-Art, in addition to providing some of the free activities for kids, runs a raffle and cooks up delicious salmon kabobs and chowder, with proceeds benefiting an arts scholarship at Vernonia High School.
Straddling both the Nehalem River and Rock Creek, Vernonia sits north of US Highway 26 and south of US Highway 30, both of which reach the Oregon Coast. Connecting them, State Route 47—the Vernonia Highway—leads to this attractive town of 2,300 people set amid bucolic farmlands and verdant forestlands about forty miles northwest of the Portland metro area. It’s just far enough off the major highways to maintain a wonderful small-town ambiance.
HP LOVECRAFT FILM FESTIVAL® & CTHULHUCON
Portland
Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard
Early October
www.hplfilmfestival.com/hplfilmfestival-portland-or
