Looking for ways to make your spring and summer in Portland unforgettable? Portland’s art scene is ready to deliver, whether it be an incredible finale to your high school journey or a time to enjoy your community in the sun. From the Mt. Tabor Art Walk to the Portland Rose Festival, here is your comprehensive and curated guide to the most exciting cultural and artistic experiences happening through spring and into summer.
In Southeast Portland’s very own Mt. Tabor neighborhood, a yearly Art Walk is hosted to showcase high-quality visual art across many locations. 2025 will be the 18th annual Art Walk, and will feature 41 resident artists and 29 sites. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet artists in their studios, homes, and community spaces. The event includes a vast variety of media, including but not limited to ceramics, fiber art, glass, mixed-media, painting, jewelry, sculptures, and photography. The Art Walk was started by local watercolor artist Sharlane Blaise in 2006 and has since become a much-anticipated annual tradition not too far from Franklin’s neighborhood.
This year’s Art Walk will be hosted on May 17 and 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will proceed rain or shine, so attendees should come prepared for the weather. Rochelle Harper is a full-time art and graphic design teacher at the Sabin-Schellenberg Professional Center who also works on the publicity for the Art Walk. Sharing advice to have the best experience for the exciting weekend, she states, “It’s probably best to come early or late. … Sundays in general are a little slower than Saturdays.” She continues, saying it “gets pretty intense in the middle part of the day on both days.” Harper, an artist herself, has shown her work in the Art Walk in previous years. Artists in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood are welcome to apply to be a part of the Art Walk on their website, mttaborartwalk.com. You can plan your visit to the many sites using the event map available on the official website, so go enjoy this annual, free, community-fostering, creative event!
While the Art Walk is one specific weekend in the spring, the Portland Saturday Market, which celebrated 50 years of community and craft in 2024, is a weekly event on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., from March through December. As the weather warms, the Saturday Market, located at 2 SW Naito Parkway, is a great opportunity to get outside on the waterfront and to enjoy handmade arts, crafts, and foods from the vendors. Franklin senior Hugo Love-Geiger says his favorite thing about the market is “all the local artists and small businesses promoting their work because I get to connect with people and see products that I don’t usually see around Portland.”
The Portland Saturday Market has been named the largest continually operating open-air arts and craft market in the U.S., and brings together both locals and visitors. Love-Geiger’s favorite memory of the Saturday Market is “visiting with my sister in 2021 because we were all just coming out of quarantine, and it was the last time I got to spend a lot of time with my sister before she went back to college.” The Market is more than just a shopping destination; it’s where families can come together for fun activities and be inspired by Pacific Northwest original artwork and handmade pieces.
Another popular event you won’t want to miss is the Portland Rose Festival, taking place for the 2025 season through May and June. The festival features parades with elaborate floats, waterfront carnival rides, live concerts and performances, dragon boat races, and even firework displays. Initially, the Rose Festival was an economic effort to attract more tourists and dollars to the city. Mayor Harry Lane hoped to make Portland the “summer capital” of the U.S., and did so by partially funding and pushing forward the first Rose Festival in 1907.
The Festival’s central events spread far beyond Portland, involving groups from all over Oregon, including but not limited to Scappoose, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Bend, and Cannon Beach. Emma Emch, the Rose Festival’s office manager, says, “This broad participation highlights the festival’s role as a unifying force that celebrates the diverse cultural fabric and regional pride of Oregon’s communities.” She explains that, “Parade participants are encouraged to share their heritage through traditional dress, dance, and song, with many designing their own floats to reflect their unique identities.”
If the Rose Festival interests you, volunteering is a great way to participate and contribute to your community, and it plays a vital role in the festival’s success. Emch encourages this, saying, “Our volunteer opportunities span from monitoring parade barricades to decorating Grand Floral Parade floats. Where else would you get to volunteer to glue flowers and seeds onto a giant parade float?!” The Rose Festival has incorporated various initiatives to keep things cost-efficient and clean, as large-scale events can produce large amounts of waste. Emch explains, “First and foremost, our Clean & Green team distributes trash bags to spectators prior to each parade, and at the parade’s conclusion, the bags are picked up by a cleanup team. Additionally, the maintenance of Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a top priority for our CityFair coordinator, who often facilitates reseeding the grass and uses Festival cleanup crews to clean up litter outside of the park’s gates.”
Not only is the Festival taking steps to mitigate its environmental impact, but it is also working to become more diverse and inclusive within its programming. They participate in the “Arts for All program,” which allows “SNAP card users [to] enter CityFair at a discounted rate of $5 per ticket,” Emch says. You can experience delicious fair cuisine, captivating live shows, thrilling carnival attractions, local artisans, and much more at the Rose Festival’s CityFair. All of this excitement happens at the scenic Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park, located in the heart of downtown Portland. One of Emch’s favorite memories from working at the Festival was when they honored a group of World War II Rosies — women who had joined the workforce in the place of men during the war — as Grand Marshals of the 2023 Grand Floral Parade. She states, “The group came with incredible stories about their service during World War II, and it was phenomenal to see them honored in such a public way.” The Portland Rose Festival is a beautiful and significant cultural event that you won’t want to miss this summer.
Finally, another weekly event to attend is the Farmers Market at the Portland State University Campus, where you can get fresh produce and artisanal foods, live music performances, and local crafts and handmade goods every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The market features an average of 100 farmers and food vendors, and is another good opportunity to be with your community and to support other members of the Pacific Northwest.
Make the rest of spring and all of summer unforgettable by immersing yourself in Portland’s thriving arts culture! Whether you’re interested in performing arts, visual arts, food, or just experiencing the city’s unique vibe, there’s something for everyone in this vibrant and diverse cultural landscape. Check out these events, most of which are free and open to the public, and enjoy our beautiful city!
