11:08 AM PDT on Tuesday, June 13, 2006

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN, kgw.com Staff

Portland’s 2006 Rose Festival wraps up this weekend and organizers have already described this year’s event as a huge success that surpassed their expectations, thanks to changes they made.

Rose Festival file photo

A colorful float lights up the street in last year's Starlight Parade.

At Waterfront Village, for example, festival organizers eliminated alcohol from the premises. This year there was no beer and wine garden, instead, the space once used for that became home for children’s entertainment.

“We changed the layout for improved family and kids’ entertainment,” said Jeff Curtis, Executive Director of the Rose Festival Association. “This year we opened up more room for entertainment attractions, small stages with kids entertainment in mind… we added strolling musicians, jugglers, comedians and magicians.”

Waterfront Village visitors may also have noticed wider aisles. Behind the scenes, organizers expanded their commitment to eco-friendly choices.

“Power for the village was supplied by clean, renewable wind power through a partnership with PGE,” Curtis said.

Attendance and revenue at the village were up this year compared to 2005, he said. Specific statistics were not available, but Curtis pointed to the Rose Festival’s Web site, which received 6 million page views during the first 11 days of the Rose Festival. That’s 1.6 million hits more than the Web site received last Rose Festival during the entire month of June, he said.

Some of the other changes to the festival include displaying the Grand Floral Parade floats outside Waterfront Village on Naito Parkway after the big parade.

Also, a musical event previously known as a high school marching band competition at PGE Park was completely reformatted to be more inclusive – this year the broader-reaching concert in the park included all kinds and sizes of bands in addition to dance groups and the changed paid off. More tickets were purchased for this year’s event than had ever been purchased for the festival of bands concerts in past years, according to Curtis.

Even Rose Festival’s opening night was modified.

“We opened the Rose Festival differently. Instead of crowing the queen Thursday night… we moved the coronation date and venue… and Thursday night to open the festival we brought in two historic tall ships… for the first weekend people could tour those ships… there were mock pirate battles… it was a very new and fun introduction to Rose Festival,” Curtis said.

MSN editors last month voted the Portland Rose Festival one of the “Top 10 Things To Do This Summer” nationwide.

The Portland Arts Festival and the Champ Car Races are the last of the Rose Festival’s activities and are scheduled for this weekend.