For nearly 120 years, Portland has marked the beginning of the summer season with the Rose Festival.
This Memorial Day weekend will be no different, with three parades, 15 princesses, a treasure hunt, a mid-parade wedding and a midway along the Willamette River.
The whole thing will kick off on Friday, May 23, with fireworks downtown. It will be a fitting start to a festival that is renewing its focus on downtown Portland.
Those fireworks will light up the sky over CityFair, a fair that takes place at Tom McCall Waterfront Park over three weekends: Friday, May 23, to Monday, May 26; Friday, May 30, to Sunday, June 1; and Friday, June 6, to Sunday, June 8.
The 2025 Rose Festival theme is “All Together Now.”
This year, the festival will be partnering with Sokol Blosser Winery, which has launched a special Rose Festival rosé.
And that‘s not all.
“They are bringing a mobile wine bar, and they’re going to have curated frozés down at CityFair,” said Adrian McCarthy, a spokesperson for the Rose Festival.
“We have 65 live performance acts on two stages down there. We have 20-plus brew beers on tap,” McCarthy said.
The carnival and rides will be there, she said. “But then we also want to create this other experience outside of the carnival rides.”
People who don’t want to go on rides or bring kids should think of CityFair for a date night or girls’ night out, McCarthy said, because they are “trying to create that vibe down on the waterfront.”
Beyond the CityFair, downtown Portland will be the scene for two parades this year.
After three years on the east side of the Willamette River, the Grand Floral Parade will return downtown on Saturday, June 7.
That move was partially motivated by a one-time $100,000 grant from the city’s development corporation, Prosper Portland.
“Bringing the Grand Floral Parade back downtown fulfills my campaign promise and reaffirms our commitment to Portland’s vibrant traditions,” said Mayor Keith Wilson in a statement.
“This move isn’t just about location,” he added, “it‘s about bringing our community together in the heart of the city and celebrating what makes Portland special.”
This year, the parade is essentially trading the east side for the west side, meaning there will be no bridge crossing and no parade in the Lloyd District. The route will remain about half the length it was before the pandemic.
It is no longer feasible to manage a nearly 4-mile route, McCarthy said.
“The reality of that,” said McCarthy, “is it‘s just too hard to manage it, with police and the city.”
Already, the festival is struggling to find the volunteers it needs to cover barricades along the shorter route.
The Rose Festival needs more than 300 barricade guides for its three parades, because the number of barricade guides required by the city at the Starlight and Grand Floral parades has increased from 80 to 120. The Junior Parade needs 70.
Part of that increase is due to tightened security after a man driving a pickup plowed through cones and over curbs and ultimately onto the Grand Floral Parade route in 2023. No one was injured in the rampage and the driver was later sentenced to five years in prison.
Barricade volunteers must be 18 and over. For more information, visit rosefestival.org/p/get-involved/volunteer.
Accessible seating for the Grand Floral Parade will be in Pioneer Square. Anyone who needs that seating should call the festival office at 503-227-2681.
The Starlight Parade will follow the same route as the Grand Floral Parade on Saturday, May 31. That parade will begin with a run along the route, which anyone can sign up for. It‘s free to watch the parade, but the cost to enter the run starts at $35 for adults.
While much of the fun takes place downtown, there will be activities on both sides of the river.
On Wednesday, June 4, the Junior Parade will take to the streets in the Hollywood neighborhood.
And the coronation of the 2025 Rose Festival Queen will happen on Friday, June 6, at Oregon Square in Northeast Portland.
Read more:
- Rose Festival memories: ‘We giggled together when we rode the Ferris wheel’
- Portland’s marquee spring festival is still looking for volunteers
- Meet Portland’s 2025 Rose Festival Court Princesses
- Rose Festival’s biggest parade will return to downtown Portland this spring
– Lizzy Acker covers life and culture and writes the advice column Why Tho? Reach her at 503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com.
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