PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Rose Festival is hopeful that it will be able to host the festival in August or September but in the meantime, it is going digital during the coronavirus pandemic.
Organizers are asking people to celebrate at home for two parades they're calling the Porch Parade and Grand Petite Parade.
For the porch parade, the Rose Festival Foundation asks you decorate your porch, lawn, sidewalk, whatever you can that is visible to the street, in whatever theme you want. The Rose Festival will make a virtual map of the registered porches across the city so you can enjoy the porches from a safe distance. On Saturday, May 23, and Saturday, May 30, the Rose Festival VIP Procession will visit the registered houses.
The Rose Festival asks if you parade in place to use the hashtags #paradinginplace or #RFporchparade.
The Grand Petite Parade will be live on Facebook on Saturday, June 6. The parade will feature shoebox floats from community members, a celebration of marching bands and other Rose Festival favorites. Anyone who wants to participate is welcome to make a shoebox float of their own and submit photos using #grandpetiteparade, which may be used in the livestream.
Other events taking place include:
- A Zoom Ukulele Jam is presented by the Tigard Ukulele Group.
- Virtual storytime that can be found here
- Activities for kids that can be found here
- A virtual rose celebration via Zoom on June 16 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. Some members of the Portland Rose Society and other experts making an offering and responding to a Q&A session about rose growing and more. The recipients of the free roses will also be announced.
For more information visit the Portland Rose Festival’s website.
