Portland’s Rose Festival parades are back this year for the first time since 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic sidelined the Starlight, Grand Floral and Junior parades last year and the year before.
Rose Fest “Parade Queen” Marilyn Clint said organizing the festival’s return has been a huge task, and big changes are coming this time around. This year’s theme is “Rose City Reunion.”
“We’ve had to reinvent ourselves for a new time,” she said. “The business of making a comeback — it’s serious. You have to take so much into consideration.”
A float in the annual 2018 Starlight Parade, in this supplied photo from The Portland Rose Festival Foundation.
Courtesy of Portland Rose Festival Foundation
The first of the three parades, the illuminated, evening Starlight Parade, will take place this Saturday. It will be entirely downtown this year, with a new route that includes Naito Parkway. It will start about an hour earlier than it generally has in the past.
The new parade route travels from Naito parkway all the way to Lincoln High School near Providence Park.
Most of the route travels along Fourth Street and Broadway between Davis and Salmon street.
The parade starts at 7:30 p.m. Naito Parkway will be closed to traffic starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, and the full parade route will be closed to traffic starting at 4 p.m. Saturday. Cars parked along the route will be towed.
The parade mostly avoids bus and public transit routes, but a few will be impacted.
Clint said considering new austerity and safety measures led to the most noticeable change of this year’s festival: The Grand Floral Parade on June 11 will be entirely on Portland’s east side for the first time in decades.
The parade used to cross the Burnside Bridge, but Clint said upcoming bridge construction meant the route needed a change.
The shortened parade route is also two miles long, rather than four. Clint said the parade will move down Lloyd Boulevard for the first time since the late 1940s. It’ll start indoors, inside Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Rose Quarter.
Parade routes: Grand Floral Parade | Starlight Parade | Junior Parade
The Junior Parade on June 8 will return to the Hollywood District.
Another change: For the first and probably last time ever, three Rose Festival courts will march in the Grand Floral Parade. The members of the 2020 and 2021 courts, who didn’t get a chance to participate in parades, will march with this year’s Rose Festival court.
More: 2022 Rose Festival Court
“I’m just looking forward to seeing people on the streets of Portland enjoying themselves,” Clint said. “I cannot wait to see this happen, see all of our fantastic entries going down the street and having them be cheered and welcomed by a city that’s ready to celebrate.”