Oregon’s Essential Summer Festival Guide
In the summer, Oregonians basically live outside. But that doesn’t mean they’re just sitting around whittling. Okay, there’s probably a whittling club somewhere. But for the rest of us, summer means music, food, and a ridiculous amount of beer. Here are the essential summer fests in the Beaver State.
Portland Fruit Beer Fest
Continuing its quest to re-masculate fruity beers, this year's PFBF includes one-offs by some of Portland’s best brewers. One year, there was even a beer made with fresh strawberry pie. Gauntlet, dropped.
Portland Pride Fest
Pride’s back and bigger than ever, taking over the Waterfront, bars, clubs, streets, and more for two days of love.
4 Peaks Music Festival
Jam bands and Bend go together like string cheese and overlong solos, and this festival is the region’s biggest music event.
Bite of Bend
Central Oregon’s biggest celebration of gluttony returns with food, barrel-aged cocktails, beer, music, and more. Extended guitar solos are not expected.
Cider Summit Portland
Offering a break from the bazillion beer fests this summer -- or, you know, just a change of pace -- the Cider Summit returns to show you what apples are truly capable of.
What the Festival
Part Coachella, part Burning Man, WTF has become Oregon’s go-to event for bugging out to EDM while partying in the woods until the sun comes up -- then continuing to party in the woods.
Oregon Garden Brewfest
Silver Falls is a good reason to go to Silverton. Drinking 130 different beers at a small-town brewfest is an even better reason.
The Portland International Beerfest
Holladay Park turns into the most debaucherous version of Mock UN possible, with 200 beers repping 16 countries, and at least one instance of struggling to pronounce a beer’s name.
Waterfront Blues Festival
It’s a tradition, dammit. One that includes fireworks, plus classic blues (Buddy Guy) and very liberal interpretations of “blues” (Macy Gray).
The Portland Craft Beer Festival
Amid all the recurring festivals, it’s easy for new ones to slip through the cracks. The PCBF doesn’t want to let that happen, so it’s bringing 57 of its brewer buddies along to make sure it makes an impression in its first year.
Oregon Country Fair
Less of a music festival and more of a hippie hangout, Country Fair is as the closest thing you can get to Burning Man without going to Black Rock City, complete with roving musicians and weird art.
Puckerfest
Belmont Station unleashes a week’s worth of sour beers during its annual celebration of barrel-aged madness.
Northwest String Summit
Sorry, this isn’t three days of classical quartets. But for anyone with even a passing interest in hippie-tinged bluegrass, it’s a must-see spectacle led by the great Yonder Mountain String Band.
Project Pabst
Last year, PBR brought Portland a giant unicorn, GZA, and Violent Femmes. This year, it’s Blondie, Weezer, and probably a unicorn at Zidell Yards, plus pop-up shows throughout the city.
The Oregon Brewers Festival
The state’s biggest beer fest returns to the Waterfront, with 90 different craft beers, live bands, food carts, and stimulating conversation with weirdos in line.
International Pinot Noir Celebration
For the past 29 years, wine lovers from all over the world have hit the Valley to sample its trademark pinots. For the past 11, they’ve really beaten Sideways quotes into the ground.
PDX Pop Now!
Portland’s nonprofit music fest returns with three days of free shows by Portland’s finest bands, plus a Calvin and Hobbes-esque basketball tournament dubbed Rigsketball.
Oregon Jamboree
Oregon’s not all hipster indie rock. Half the state’s pure country. And in Sweet Home, Keith Urban and Big & Rich are here to show the state how to truly rock plaid shirts and goofy hats.
Pickathon
Crunchy? Well, yeah. The whole thing runs on renewable energy. But the name Pickathon belies a fest that’s less a bluegrass explosion than a sweet, cross-sampling mashup of every musical genre imaginable.
The Elephant Garlic Fest
This funky little rural fest includes garlic ice cream, garlic beer, and probably absolutely no make-out sessions for about a week afterward.
North American Organic Brewer's Festival
It’s like the Oregon Brewers Fest, but with a lot more hugs, a lot fewer shoes, and considerably more hula hoops.
Willamette Country Music Festival
The Jamboree’s big brother, this country music festival consistently brings in top talent that attracts visitors from across the state and into Washington and Idaho. Said talent this year includes Rascal Flatts.
Nano Beer Fest
Small-batch beers make a huge-ass impact at this gathering celebrating one-off beers from around the region.
MusicFest NW
MFNW returns for a second round of Waterfront domination with headliners like Danny Brown, Foster the People, and Modest Mouse.
Festa Italiana
Pioneer Square becomes Little Italy, complete with grape stomping, opera singers, and enough Italian food to feed, like, half a Dom DeLuise.