Annual Events & Festivals - Festivals & Annual Events
Almost everything in Oregon, from the sacred to the mundane, seems to have its own festival or event. In this chapter, which is organized chronologically, we cover a wide range of festivals of all types and sizes in Portland and the metro area, surrounding Oregon counties, and in nearby Vancouver and Clark County, Washington. In a culture of mass marketing, mass media, and mass consumption, these celebrations help define and distinguish a particular area, preserving an awareness of local identity and history. Most important, they preserve a sense of place.
Some of the largest events in the area include athletic contests such as the Portland Marathon and the Hood-to-Coast Relay. Other draws feature Waterfront Park: In the summer, Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park hosts the Oregon Brewers Festival, the Rose Festival Fun Center, and the Waterfront Blues Festival. The area also has a chance to showcase its farmers’ markets during the summer. There you will find specialty and organic food products, flowers and nursery stock, not to mention the area’s agricultural bounty. Portland’s Old Town hosts the Saturday Market, an open-air craft and food event held each weekend from March until Christmas. Downtown’s Pioneer Square is another popular site for performances of all sorts and smaller cultural, art, food, and other festivals. You can find something happening every weekend, somewhere.
Local newspapers and websites are good sources for details about what is going on when you are visiting. The Oregonian’s Friday A&E section and Homes & Gardens of the Northwest insert all carry detailed listings and calendars of a wide assortment of events in the entire region. Portland Monthly magazine maintains an excellent calendar, and the smaller community and weekly papers—notably Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury—also carry this information. The Portland Oregon Visitors Association (POVA), at (503) 275-9750 or (800) 962-3700, keeps an online events calendar: www.travelportland.com.
Finally, this is Oregon: Outside events are rarely canceled because of weather, though it may occasionally cause changes in schedules and performances. In general, though, the show goes on. Dress accordingly.
1. Reel Music
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 221-1156
Address: 1219 Southwest Park Ave.
Description: The annual celebration of music on film is one of two popular winter events sponsored by the Northwest Film Center. It’s held at the Whitsell Auditorium in the Portland Art Museum, and the event features film showings, concerts, and speakers. Admission fees vary, so call ahead.
2. Rose City Classic All Breed Dog Show
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 2060 North Marine Dr.
Description: Portlanders love their dogs, and this event allows owners from throughout Oregon and southwest Washington to show off their pets (or vice versa). Four thousand dogs and their breeders attend this dog extravaganza, complete with agility trials, obedience contests, and breed competitions.
3. Chinese New Year
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: Lucky money, fireworks, and feasting—what’s not to love about Chinese New Year? This 15-day festival offers parades, parties, and other events to bring in the new year with style. Dancers dressed in traditional lion costumes scare off the evil spirits and bring good luck to Chinatown—an area of town that once housed immigrants from the Kwangtung province of Canton. You can celebrate Chinese New Year at various venues across town, in particular at the Portland Classical Chinese Garden (503-228-8131; see our Attractions chapter).
4. Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’S Show
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 246-8291
Address: 2060 North Marine Dr.
Description: The region’s oldest and largest show of its type, this toy show is for those who fish, camp, hunt, and hike. There are hundreds of new products and services along with free seminars, exhibitions, and hands-on demonstrations.
5. Portland International Film Festival
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 276-4310
Address: 1219 Southwest Park Ave.
Description: Whether you like to go to the movies or view films, this festival will provide plenty of entertainment. Expect to see a variety of professional, experimental, traditional, and avant-garde films—as well as lectures, talks and exhibits—during this well-attended event, which sponsored by the Northwest Film Center. Admission fees vary, but in general, the more movies you attend, the lower the cost per viewing, if you buy a pass or block of tickets. Movies (as many as 80) are shown in local theaters over a three-week period. The opening and closing nights feature the Portland premiers of new major movies. Matinee tickets are available.
6. Portland Jazz Festival
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 228-5299
Description: The Portland Jazz Festival celebrates our musical heritage with rare insight and wit. The festival is organized around a new theme each year, and so the featured artists vary. But you will hear luminaries such as pianist Randy Weston, local favorites with international reputations such as Dave Frishberg, as well as up-and-coming stars like tenor sax man Joshua Redman and jazz violinist Regina Carter. The Portland Jazz Festival coincides with Black History Month, and many outreach and education events round out this weeklong celebration.
7. Antique & Collectible Sale
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 282-0877
Address: 2060 North Marine Dr.
Description: Billed as “America’s Largest Antique and Collectible Sale,” this extravaganza will have something for everyone. Admission is $7, but there is an additional parking fee. More than 1000 booths fill the Expo Center with intriguing items from the past. They’ll appraise your old stuff for $5 per item, too. They repeat this event in July and Oct. Please leave Fido in the RV.
8. Portland Saturday Market
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 222-6072
Insider Pick:
Description: Since 1974 Saturday Market (it is open on Sun too) has been another “must see” for visitors. You can enjoy street theater (some intentional, some not), sample from a range of food booths, and buy everything from candles, macramé, pottery, stained glass, clothing, hemp products, local produce and handmade housewares to furniture and toys, and tools and trinkets. Not as countercultural as they once were, vendors may dress like Deadheads but in reality are small business owners. Everything is made by hand. The market runs until Christmas. During the holiday-shopping madness, it is as packed as any department store or mall. We still have the Cowichan sweaters we bought there in high school, which are now cult items thanks to The Big Lebowski, and now you can have one too.
9. Reed Arts Week (Raw)
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Address: 3202 Southeast Woodstock Blvd.
Description: This five-day gala of dance, poetry and prose readings, exhibits and musical performances includes the work of Reed students and that of important artists from Portland and beyond. There are performances and master classes, and everything is intellectually and aesthetically stimulating and challenging. And the college’s Southeast Portland campus is beautiful, with a small but excellent art gallery, a superb performing arts center, and a great bookstore. Exhibitions are open from noon to 6 p.m.; workshops and events begin in the afternoon and linger well into the evening.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
11. Shamrock Run
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Description: One of Portland’s most popular running events, the Shamrock Run is a fund-raiser for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation, one of the state’s most popular and successful charities. The event includes a Leprechaun Lap, a 1-kilometer run, walk, or jog; the Shamrock Stride, a 4-mile walk; and 5-kilometer, 8-kilometer and 15-kilometer races. The entry fee varies with the runner’s age and selected event but includes a T-shirt and the usual goodies.
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
13. Crystal Springs Early Rhododendron Show
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 771-8386
Description: The beautiful Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden hosts two celebrations of this native flowering shrub, one on the first Sat in April and the other during Mother’s Day weekend in May. The April show features hundreds of early blooms and these signs of spring are the perfect way to remind yourself that the rains will eventually taper off. (See the Portland’s Parks chapter for more information about this wonderful public park.)
14. Lilac Festival
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (360) 225-8996
Description: Set on 5.5 acres near the Columbia River, the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens holds the promise of spring. This is a popular event for color-starved Pacific Northwesterners who spend hours wandering the grounds admiring the hues and smelling the fragrance of both rare and more common varieties of the plant. Bouquets and cuttings are also available for purchase. There is a small gift shop in the farmhouse, and refreshments are available. Donations are welcomed at this National Historic Site.
15. Woodburn Tulip Festival
City: Portland, OR
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (503) 634-2243, (800) 711-2006
Description: Emerging from the gray Oregon winter, hundreds of thousands of tulip bulbs burst into color each spring at several nurseries in this small town just south of Portland. Oregonians flock to the varied colored fields, rejoicing at this welcome sign that they survived another winter. Visitors can purchase cut flowers, order bulbs, dine on local foods, and be tempted by the nurseries’ bounty and gift shops. The actual dates vary slightly in response to the severity of the winter, but by mid-Apr you can usually count on acres of gorgeous blossoms. During the festival weeks there is a $10 vehicle charge on Sat and Sun; Mon through Fri it’s $5.