Rose Festival Rallies Hospitality Sector

The 3-Week Rose City Reunion Stimulates Revitalization

Portland needed a comeback story, and the Portland Rose Festival provided it. For three weeks in May and June, the festival’s world-class events drew locals and visitors alike to celebrate a Rose City Reunion. The return of big events kicks off the summer season, signaling a wave of positive change for renewed vitality in the city.

The Portland Rose Festival Foundation, the non-profit that produces Portland’s Official Festival, is a tenured organization with more than a century of event planning experience under its belt. Its dedicated staff and volunteer board of directors eagerly went into high gear in 2022 planning for the successful return of in-person events after a two-year hiatus. “We’re a team of adjustment artists,” says Jeff Curtis, Portland Rose Festival Foundation CEO. “We needed every ounce of ingenuity, collaboration, and dedication to make it happen, and looking back, it was worth the effort.”

It was in 1905, during the World's Fair known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, built in what is now the Northwest industrial neighborhood, that city leaders, led by the Portland Mayor Harry Lane, realized that big celebration events meant big money for the transportation, lodging and restaurant businesses. The City was already celebrating the Rose thanks to the Portland Rose Society, established 16 years earlier in 1889 by the wife of The Oregonian newspaper, Georgianna Pittock. With the rose as its theme, Mayor Lane declared that Portland needed to produce an annual 'Rose Carnival' that would attract visitors and travelers from all over the country to come and spend money. Two years later in 1907 the first Rose Festival was born. 115 years later on, the Rose Festival's return is equally as meaningful to the visitor industry.

Under the theme “Rose City Reunion,” the 2022 festival gave Portlanders opportunities to come together and take an active role in making Portland the city they want it to be. Preparing Portland’s streets for three big parades was a priority, and the festival’s Starlight Parade title sponsor, CareOregon, led the charge by partnering with SOLVE for a downtown Portland clean-up on May 18, leading into the festival season.

Getting people to come back to Portland’s downtown core was a central priority as well, with an emphasis on three full weekends of activities in Waterfront Park. As the first event to return to the waterfront venue, new programming such as the free Rose City Reunion concert featuring the Oregon Symphony drew music lovers downtown for a Thursday evening in the city to enjoy Portland’s vibrant performing arts. Memorial Day Weekend signaled the start of Rose Festival CityFair, drawing crowds for Friday’s fireworks display –launched from not one but two barges on the Willamette – making it the biggest, baddest fireworks to light up the city in years.

The festival’s signature event, the Spirit Mountain Casino Grand Floral Parade, made its return on a new Central Eastside route, ensuring that neighborhoods across the city could had accessibility to big events, as well as reap the benefits of economic impact brought by parade crowds coming from near and far. Another tradition to return during Rose Festival was Fleet Week. As one of only four cities on the West Coast to host a Fleet Week, Portland enjoys the benefit of service members from the U.S. and Canadian maritime forces spending their shore leave in local restaurants and bars, while visitors coming to have the rare opportunity to tour the ships do the same. It’s a win-win for service personnel and the local economy.

Rose Festival took the first step for Portland on the path back to a position of strength, by providing a way for citizens to take pride in their city, and welcome guests to see why Oregon is such a special place to live and visit. “Our goal was to produce a festival all Oregonians can be proud of,” said Curtis. “Not only that, but we also know the longterm benefits of a thriving tourism industry. We’ve worked hard to set the stage for a series of events that will bring positive PR and attention to Portland and Oregon.”

And the Rose Festival is ready to do it again next year. Mark your calendar to be part of the annual tradition May 26-June 11, 2023.

For more information, visit the festival website at www.RoseFestival.org  PORTLAND

ROSE FESTIVAL FOUNDATION