Oregon Festivals. John Shewey
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.