Portland Rose Festival
If you are new to Portland, you’ll notice a lot of commotion around the city come June. This is when we celebrate the Portland Rose Festival, a month-long event with parades, Queens, carnivals, and of course, prized roses from local gardeners. As the City of Roses, Portland has been highlighting our claim to fame in this Festival for nearly 100 years. Founders of the Rose Fest began the event in order to “put Portland on the map” and brand it the ‘Summer Capital of the World’. Now, the Festival draws thousands from all over the region to celebrate the beauty of the city and the people that make it so great.
Grand Floral Parade
The Rose Fest began in 1907 with the city’s Mayor declaring that Portland needed a floral festival to celebrate the beautiful blooms that pop up in Oregon’s temperate springtime. It began with locals decorating horse-drawn wagons with florals and marching through the old streets. Now, the Grand Floral Parade is a massive operation: in 2025 gathering 225,000 attendees to spectate the elaborately decorated floats that make up the procession. The route changes yearly, and last year, Hassalo was the final point of the beloved event, which ended in the spacious Lloyd Center parking lot, creating a more organized finish to such a large feat. The Floral Parade is the final celebration of the Rose Fest, and the massive numbers that attend proves it’s a long-awaited event. This year, the Parade begins during Fleet Week at the PDX waterfront along the Willamette River, and ends at Providence Park.
Queen Coronation
Here at Hassalo, we hold the Queen Coronation Ceremony dear, not only because it celebrates the brightest youth in the PDX area, but because the Coronation Ceremony is held at Oregon Square, an American Assets Trust property, right behind Hassalo’s Aster Tower. Every year, 15 Portland high school students are chosen to represent the Rose Festival Court, and one of them is crowned Rose Fest Queen at the Coronation. The young women, all students within the Portland Metro School District, are chosen based on their academic, sport, and community achievements. Perks of being Rose Fest royalty includes scholarships and leadership opportunities for these young adults going into the next phase of life. The Court members commit to months of community engagement, media training, and networking. Each Court member gets a $5000 scholarship to any accredited college, university or trade program of their choice.
City Fair
The most exciting celebration during the Rose Fest is the City Fair hosting carnival rides, urban markets, food, and live music at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Southwest Portland. The festivities are ongoing on weekends mid-May through the beginning of June. Go catch some adrenaline on a ride and see the expansive views of Portland from the Waterfront, or pack a blanket, grab a beer and settle on the grass for a live show into the evening. Artists headlining include Supernova Strong Woman (a Cirque du Soleil trained acrobat), Nate Botsford, and Arietta Ward, among many, many others. Makers Markets are scattered throughout the Festival to encourage shopping locally to support Portland Artists and Crafters.
The Rose Festival is not just a few little pop-ups and a parade: its a city-wide celebration Portlanders take very seriously. The Rose Festival Street Mile Fun Run is a marathon for families that take the parade route through the city, then there’s the Portland Rose Society Spring Rose Show, highlighting local gardeners and their prized roses inside Lloyd Center Mall, on the perimeter of the ice rink. You can’t have a party in Portland without fireworks, and on May 20, the show will set off from Tom McCall Waterfront Park for the whole city to enjoy.
Portland is certainly unique, but come Summertime, it’s a city that knows it’s appeal. The Waterfront comes alive with boaters and swimmers, the park filled with people, dogs, and all kinds of colorful events, and people of all different backgrounds mingling in the sunshine. A long-time Rose Fest trope has been: assume that there will be rain. June is still a dodgy month weather-wise in Portland, and go figure, it tends to literally rain on the Rose Parade, but as a city, we aren’t afraid of getting a little damp. Rain or shine, floats roll through town covered in roses, inspiring youth get recognized, and people come together to enjoy local art, food and performances. Overall, it’s our indicator that Summer in Portland has finally arrived.