July 17-19: Beer, Woodstock Parade, the Big Busk, and a Sunday Parkway

Updates for 2010:

• July 16-18: Portland International Beerfest 2010
• July 17: Woodstock Festival and Parade 2010
• July 17: The Big Busk 2010
• July 18: East Portland Sunday Parkways

This weekend sports quite the line up.

There’s a beer fest, of course – the Portland International Beer Festival, which runs all weekend (Friday 4pm-10pm, Saturday 12pm-10pm, Sunday 12pm-7pm) up in the North Park blocks between Davis and Everett. This is the expensive one: $20 for 10 beer tickets and official glass (don’t confuse this one with the big one, which is next weekend).

Head out to southeast Portland for the the annual Woodstock Festival and Parade Saturday. It runs from 11am to 4pm, in the Woodstock Neighborhood of course.

You’ll find live music on two stages (one at 43rd and Woodstock, one at 46th), food vendors, a raffle, and of course the parade. Check the website for details.

Also Saturday The Big Busk takes place. What’s the Big Busk? It’s a downtown Portland musical festival unlike any other:

The idea is, for an entire afternoon, to saturate downtown with music. All kinds of music. Up and down Broadway, the transit mall, the park blocks to the esplanade.

There is no stage, but every corner is a stage. There is no audience, but everyone is the audience. There is no admission fee, but we

Make a trip downtown between 2pm and 8pm Saturday to see, and hear, what it’s all about. Check out the website for a list of performers and stages, or just wander about and follow your ear.

I know you listen to the Portland Sucks podcast, so you already know Robert Wagner and Sabrina Miller are putting together a team of commandoes to roam the festival to record music and gather interviews for an upcoming podcast.

The second Sunday Parkway of the summer takes place Sunday from 9am to 4pm. This one is in Northeast Portland. (The last one is August 16 in Southeast Portland.)

The 7-mile Northeast Sunday Parkways two-way route will showcase portions of the Vernon, Concordia, Cully, Alameda, Sabin, and Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhoods. The route will also feature the Ainsworth parkway, Alameda bluff and will cross the Alberta, Beaumont and 42 Avenue business districts. There is no start or finish line – join the fun where ever you want!

Other noteworthy events are the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival, under the St. John’s Bridge, Friday through Sunday, and the Portland Highland Games out at Mt. Hood Community College on Saturday. And of course the Timbers play twice this weekend, on the road.

Around the Sun and PDX Pipeline, as usual, have comprehensive lists of other events this weekend, and OurPDX enters the fray with Shit to do this weekend.