The end of summer may be nigh, but the summery events aren’t over yet. This Portland weekend has something for everyone: the Pirate Festival, the State Fair, Movies in the Park, a big ol’ union picnic, and much more!
Ongoing
The 2011 Oregon State Fair runs from Friday, August 26 through September 5, at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem. Heather and I had a blast at last year’s fair.
Competitions this year include 4-H of course, along with categories such as fine art, farm and garden, photography, floral, creative living, and grill offs. And of course there will be horse shows, and exhibits of livestock and the best part: small animals. [more]
Movies in the park this weekend:
Thursday: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 @ Columbia Park
Friday: Roman Holiday @ Director Park
Saturday: Gulliver’s Travels @ Wallace Park [more]
Chapman Vaux’s Swift Watch 2011
So here’s the deal. Every September thousands of Vaux’s Swifts come to Portland. They spend their days eating lots of bugs. In the late afternoon the Swifts begin flying in a giant undulating swirl in the sky about the school. Around sunset they swirl more tightly, like a ground pepper tornado, and begin disappearing, measure by measure, down the chimney. On the lawn below, hundreds of Portlanders gather on lawn chairs and blankets to stare at the sky, mesmerized. Boos erupt when opportunistic Peregrine falcons occasionally get lucky. The crowd cheers, however, when the predators are thwarted. Meanwhile unruly oblivious children scream and roll down the grassy hill. [more]
Soccer City USA: The Portland Timbers and the NASL Years, 1975-1982
The Oregon Historical Society‘s newest exhibit, Soccer City USA: The Portland Timbers and the NASL Years, 1975-1982, kicked off the day after the Timber’s home opener, and runs through Sunday, September 4, 2011.
The exhibit curators have assembled an exhibit which focuses on the years the Timbers played in the original North American Soccer League, and is the largest collection of Timbers artifacts in one place at one time. [more]
Friday-Sunday
Our 15th annual festival will be held this coming September 3th to September 5th, 2011 and hopes to be one of our best ever. Our festival fills the Northwest Portland Park blocks with art, theater, music, and hands-on activities for people of all ages …
Art In The Pearl® is a wonderful community event. Over one hundred artists show and sell work ranging from fine wooden furniture to beautiful paintings to photography, glass, clay, metal, jewelry, and much more! Art In The Pearl is ranked in the TOP 25 Fine Art events nationwide by the Art Fair Sourcebook. [more]
OMSI Reptile and Amphibian Show
Crawl, creep, and slither your way to one of the largest gatherings of reptiles and amphibians in the Pacific Northwest when OMSI presents the Reptile and Amphibian Show, Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3-5, 2011. Over 100 exotic animals will be on display at this popular event, including a large variety of captive-bred snakes, lizards, turtles, alligators, and more. [more]
Friday
Cort and Fatboy’s Midnight Movie: Who Framed Roger Rabbit
This is the original 35mm film, filling the Bagdad’s screen with Bob Zemeckis’ genius, Bob Hoskins’ grumpiness, Roger’s ridiculousness and Jessica’s allure, with Bugs, Mickey, Donald, Daffy, Betty Boop, Droopy Dog and about a hundred other classic cartoons sharing the screen for the first and likely only time together. [more]
Saturday-Sunday
The sixth annual Portland Pirate Festival invades Historic St. Helens, Oregon this Saturday and Sunday, September 3 and 4, 2011.
I have never made it to this event (for one thing I have no swashbuckling outfit), so all I can vouch for is what they say on the website – looks like fun! The fest features pirate-themed and non-pirate-themed music, dance and performance, historical reenactments (with cannons!), stuff for kids, and of course there grub and grog! [more]
Monday
Oregon was the first state to officially recognize the Labor Day holiday in 1887, so it’s only fitting that to this day we throw huge Labor Day picnics throughout the state.
The largest local union picnic, which an estimated 20,000 people attended last year, is the Northwest Oregon Labor Council‘s Labor Day Picnic held Monday, September 5 at Oaks Amusement Park from 10am until 5pm. [more]
And for even more weekend events and activities, check out the Dave Knows Calendar, and visit Blogging Portland on the Cheap, PDX Pipeline, and Oregon Events at OregonLive.com.
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