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Village Building Convergence 2012

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Village Building Convergence 2012The 12th annual Village Building Convergence (VBC), a ten-day placemaking festival that combines crowdsourced activism, creative community development, hands-on education and celebration, takes place in Portland from May 25 through June 3, 2012.

We will come together to create benches, community kiosks, gardens, street paintings, tile mosaics, and more! Come join your neighbors as they bring to life the natural building, permaculture, and public art projects that they’ve been planning. Learn valuable skills for urban sustainability and social regeneration while celebrating the creativity and diversity of our wonderful city!

This event is hosted by City Repair, an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live.

During the day, participants have the opportunity to participate, for free, in creative, community designed placemaking projects all over town.

Speakers, presentations, and food fill the evenings – Tickets are available at the door (the central venue is St. David’s of Wales at 2800 SE Harrison).

Download the The Village Builder event guide, and visit the Village Building Convergence website for more project and event details.

Art Spark (15-September-2011)

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Art SparkJoin Portland Taiko and Wordstock this Thursday, September 15, 2011 from 5pm to 7pm for Art Spark at the Green Dragon Bistro and Pub (928 SE 9th).

Join us in the beer garden, pick up your Wordstock 2011 festival guide and experience a sampling of Portland Taiko’s upcoming performance. Maybe while you’re with us, you’ll fold a paper crane for tsunami survivors, get your photo taken in Wordstock’s iconic red chair, or write your own life story, in seven syllables or less.

The Art Spark mission: A Bi-monthly Mingling of Artists of all sorts to meet, discuss, blather, applaud & plot the growth of the Arts in Portland. Events are held bi-monthly on 3rd Thursdays.

11th Annual Village Building Convergence (May 27-June 5, 2011)

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Village Building Convergence 2011City Repair, an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live, is hosting the 11th annual Village Building Convergence (VBC) in Portland from May 27 through June 5, 2011.

The VBC is a ten-day placemaking festival that combines crowdsourced activism, creative community development, hands-on education and celebration.

11th Annual VBC in brief: We will come together to create benches, community kiosks, gardens, street paintings, tile mosaics, and more! Come join your neighbors as they bring to life the natural building, permaculture, and public art projects that they’ve been planning for the last 4 months. Learn valuable skills for urban sustainability and social regeneration while celebrating the creativity and diversity of our wonderful city!

During the day, participants have the opportunity to participate, for free, in creative, community designed placemaking projects all over town.

Presentations, food, and musical performances fill the evenings – 9 day tickets for the evening events can be purchased online or at the door.

Visit the Village Building Convergence website for more project and event details.

September 24-26: Oktoberfest at Oaks Park 2010

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Oaks Park Oktoberfest 2010The 2010 Zenner’s Oktoberfest at Oaks Park takes place Friday through Saturday, September 24-26.

The authentic German beers and food options (e.g. bratwurst, chicken schnitzel, braised red cabbage, sauerkraut, German Potato Salad, and Tater Tots!) are reasonably priced, and there are enough places to put in your order that the lines don’t often get too long.

Entertainment is provided by a multitude of polka-y bands, including Greg Meier, the Polkatones, Still Kickin’, the Alpine Echoes, the Country Dutchmen, and more.

For the competitive festival goer, there’s also pretzel toss, condiment art, chicken dance, and sausage eating contests throughout the weekend.

In addition there’s a vendor village and plenty of stuff for the kids.

Admission is $5 for adults 16 to 61, $3 for 62 and over, and kids get in for $2. Friday the fest goes from 3pm-midnight (rides 6pm-10pm), Saturday, 11am-midnight (rides noon-10pm), and Sunday 11am-7pm (rides noon-7pm). Download the full schedule of events here (pdf).

This is one of Heather‘s favorite Portland festivals, because of the weiner dog races of course! Personally I enjoy mostly the beer and accordion music, of which there is plenty!

Here are a a couple reviews of past Oaks Park Oktoberfests:

And here’s a weiner dog race video!

Weiner Dog Race! from Mile73 on Vimeo.

September 26: Northwest Portland Sunday Parkways

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Sunday ParkwaysThe final Sunday Parkways of 2010 takes place Sunday, September 26th in Northwest Portland.

Take the opportunity to spend a pleasant (hopefully) summery Sunday morning and afternoon (10am to 3pm) winding your way on bike or foot through the mostly car free streets of Northwest, and a sliver of Southwest, Portland. The routes take you from one activity area to the next, where you can check out the vendors and demonstrations, or just sit down and relax. For this week’s event, the activity areas include Couch and Wallace Parks, the Pearl District, and the Saturday Market.

NW Portland Sunday Parkways 2010

(Click map to download in PDF format.)