We Were Bridging Communities in 2009 -- We'll Have Rose Spirit in 2010!
Details for 2010 will be coming soon!
The 2009 vintage of Oregon's most venerable event will celebrate the theme Bridging Communities with more than 90 entries and two special sections that reach across centuries and continents.
Highlights include a fantastic lineup of 15 beautiful floats, including Reser's Beauty and the Beast and an offering from St. Mary's Academy, celebrating 150 years of educating local young women; 112 horses, carrying riders, pulling wagons and even dancing; more music than ever, including 19 great marching bands; the most special entries in recent history, giving everyone something to cheer about!
The drum line and dancers from Portland's Self Enhancement, Inc. will share their pride and passion as they lead the parade.
For the first time in Rose Festival history, a band from the world-famous Philadelphia Mummers Parade brings its unique brand of colorful entertainment to the streets of Portland. The Woodland String Band will wow local audiences as they dance down the street encouraging parade-goers to 'Walk Like an Egyptian.'
450+ Boy Scouts will strut their stuff as they march together to celebrate the 2010 Boy Scout Centennial and Jamboree.
The Amtrak Cascades Character Clown Corps led by Boss Clown Angel Ocasio will be twice as big and twice as entertaining in their second year as an official part of the Rose Festival.
The parade will feature two special sections:
Our Oregon ~ Bridging Centuries, including a Birthday Cake float from the parade's longest-running sponsor, Portland General Electric, a vintage Oregon City trolley, a moving tableau of Oregon history featuring native Americans like Chief Jesse Jones, trappers and mountain men, our own Georgiana Pittock and Mayor Harry Lane, other Oregon notables like Dr. John McLoughlin and Joseph Meek, amazing equestrians that include a mule team, the 1959 Rose Festival Court led by Queen Mary Sue Woolfolk, our 2009 Rose Festival Court led by the newly crowned queen, beautiful floats from Spirit Mountain Casino and Fred Meyer, colorful Wagon Master Dee Douglas from Merlin, Oregon and the legendary, D.B. Cooper!
Small World ~ Bridging Continents presented by Boeing, led by the Royal Rosarian float featuring Portland's oldest Sister City, Sapporo, Japan, as well as colorful floats representing Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the Oregon Vietnamese Community Association and La Pantera. Pedro Sanchez returns with his dancing horses and mariachi band, the Chinese Lion and Dragon Dancers make their first appearance, while the Ekome Dancers featuring African rhythms offer an encore of their crowd-pleasing performance from 2008. Marching bands have come all the way from Kaohsiung and Alberta, Canada: the Shu-Te Commercial High School marching band with their beautiful dancers, and the Magrath High School band.
The world's largest permanent marching band, the popular One More Time Around Again Marching Band presented by Standard TV and Appliance, will be especially enthusiastic in 2009 as they celebrate their 25th anniversary.
Reserved seating is available at the Memorial Coliseum and includes admission to the Queen's Coronation presented by Pacific Power, from 8:30 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. Reserved seats are also available in premium chairs and bleachers along the television area outside the Coliseum. For the second year in a row, parade guests inside the Memorial Coliseum will be treated to natural light as the curtains are dropped to allow the view of the outside world to come inside!
After this year's parade, most of the floats will be displayed adjacent to the Waterfront Village on SW Naito Parkway. There will be no charge for viewing the floats, which will be open from 3:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. on Saturday and from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.
See the Lineup of the 2009 KeyBank Grand Floral Parade:
Note: This document is in .PDF format.
Do you need Adobe Reader? It's free!
2009 Lineup [PDF]
Pledge to be Positive!
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JetBlue Airways Brings Mummers to March on Portland
The Portland Rose Festival is pleased to welcome special guests from the Philadelphia Mummers Parade -- the Woodland String Band. In their first Pacific Northwest performance, this traditional Mummers group will bring their Egyptian-themed performance with elaborate costumes and rousing music to BandFest, the KeyBank Grand Floral Parade and the Waterfront Village on June 5 and 6. Special thanks to sponsors JetBlue Airways and the Courtyard by Marriott Portland City Center for making this visit possible!
Buy a family treat for the Grand Floral Parade and Support the Rose Festival!
Paradise Bakery & Café is teaming up with the Portland Rose Festival Foundation and you can help support the Festival by purchasing an official Rose Festival cookie box of chipper cookies for ONLY $2.95! Paradise Bakery & Café will give the Portland Rose Festival Foundation 50% of all proceeds during the festival, May 22 - June 7, 2009. All of Paradise products are made from scratch, using only the finest quality ingredients & baked fresh daily. Visit one of four local Oregon stores (Bridgeport Village, Essex House, Lloyd Center and Pioneer Place) today and pick up a delicious box of our famous chipper cookies! Working together, we can support our community. If supporting the Festival in a sweet way isn't enough, Paradise Bakery will give a 2-for-1 admission coupon for the Waterfront Village for each chipper box sold! Visit their website to learn more.
Fun Fact:
How often does it rain on our parade? KeyBank Grand Floral Parade Weather Statistics & Records, 1955-2006. Source: National Weather Service Portland, Oregon
Tell Us Your Story
Your Rose Festival memories are part of the official history of this one hundred-year tradition. Have you watched the parade from the same spot every year? Have you or your friends ever camped out overnight before the parade or left your chairs on the route in advance of the actual event? Was a family member ever part of the Rose Festival Court? We want to hear your stories!
Our hope is to build a cyber history of stories that can be shared year after year! So we haven't stopped searching for more, even after our Centennial festival of 2007.
Email us stories@rosefestival.org and send us YOUR story! And please feel free to include digital images (photos or scans) that can be included when we post online.
Read the collected stories at OregonLive.Com HERE!
Read the collected stories at LiveJournal.Com HERE!
