The Rose Feh-stival
In yesterday's Oregonian, Steve Duin fairly decently explained a resistance to the Rose Festival that I think is shared with a rather significant number of other Portland residents:
Am I the only one in town -- or only one of several hundred thousand sleepwalkers -- who barely notices the Rose Festival when it's here and never misses the beast when it's gone?
In the 23 years I've lived in the Portland area, I've attended only one Starlight Parade. I'm 0 for 23 at the Grand Floral Parade. I don't announce this as a point of pride, but as an element of confession.
While I've only lived here six years, these happen to be my stats on attendance as well. I've seen a single Starlight Parade, just after I moved here, and utterly nothing else of any Rose Festival since.
Well, except for that one time I had to cross through the Starlight Parade in order to go see Elliott Smith at the Crystal Ballroom. And, yes, he did of course perform the song.
In the end, it's Duin's conclusion which makes the point:
I guess I'm just the eternal back bencher where the festival is concerned. It's not my family tradition, passed down from the grandparents and on through to the children. It's not a good reason to change direction or rush downtown.
Instead, it's background noise, a party at the neighbors', an alternate reality. And if I'm truly missing something, no one has ever explained just what.
Of course, I can subscribe to this sort of dismissal with almost certain impunity. But imagine the invective Duin, as a columnist for the state's paper of record, is likely receiving from Oregonian readers.
June 04, 2003 at 09:24 PM
Agreed.
Also, has the fencing been extended this year? I was utterly frustrated while running a few days ago to find that nearly all of waterfront park has a fence in front of it (all the way to the steel bridge), with very few openings to get through, making it a pain to actually get to the park to run.
June 05, 2003 at 12:04 AM
No idea about the fencing. So far, the only direct observation I've had about the festival this year came from accidentally seeing part of the Starlight Parade on KGW. I think it went something like, "What the fuck does a McDonald's float have to do with Portland?"
June 05, 2003 at 10:13 AM
I think Mr Duin and company have somewhat missed the point. The Rose Festival is just good ol' economic boosterism. As a native, I'm not surprised that transplants sometimes don't get it. It's tourist-based activity that brings in booh-koh (sic) bucks and gives us a chance to sell the city a little. On top of it, there are some activities that are very Portland resident-centric. Case-in-point the junior parade that occurred yesterday.
Also, if you don't like the fencing around Waterfront Park, why not complain about every other single event that gets held down there like Cinco De Mayo and my favorite, the Oregon Brewer's Festival?
June 05, 2003 at 10:40 AM
My impression was that it was more a matter of determiing if the fencing has increased from what's usually used, which would make it more difficult than normal to get to the park to run.
June 06, 2003 at 09:29 AM
Exactly. The fencing for the rose festival is in places where there has never been fencing before (essentially extending from the steel bridge to about the hawthorne bridge, with very few openings). So, to access the waterfront park means trekking along the sidewalk on front ave until you find an opening... not a huge deal, but an unnecessary annoyance nonetheless.