America's Original Porch Parade is Back in 2021
An immobile parade that moved across the country is coming back to Portland. The Rose Festival's Second Annual Porch Parade is returning to Portland neighborhoods and -- NEW THIS YEAR -- the Rose Festival is welcoming local businesses to join in the fun, and decorate their own buildings and store fronts.
A limited production Porch Parade and 2021 Roses for Hope lawn signs will be distributed to early registers during the week of May 24. All decorations should be complete and ready for show by May 31. The Rose Festival Porch Parade celebration runs from May 31 through June 13, 2021. (Registration is now open at this website on the Porch Parade page.)
Debuting under pandemic conditions in 2020, the Rose Festival Porch Parade and Roses for Hope gardens, welcomed more than 400 homes and gardens to the citywide event. Residents decorated porches and yards with themes representing Rose Festival, local businesses and family fun. The Rose Festival's Parading in Place concept wasn't only popular in Portland, festivals across the country picked up the idea in: San Antonio, Detroit, New Orleans, Mobile, Alabama, and Washington D.C. to name just a few.
This year, with Portland Businesses hit especially hard from the pandemic and social unrest, the Festival is reaching back to the time when all of Portland turned out with Rose Festival-themed floral decorations. Businesses are once again being encouraged to decorate a front door, window or even building face. The Portland Rose Festival will produce an online map with the locations, so the public can walk, bike, or drive around, and share in the celebration.
Themes for the 2021 Rose Festival Porch Parade honoring the Rose Festival's three traditional parades include: The Grand Floral, the Starlight and the Junior parades. Porch designers are encouraged to pull out their seasonal Christmas lights, and create a multi-themed concept with a Grand Floral Parade or Junior Parade in daylight hours, and a Starlight Parade theme by night. Porch Parade designers are not limited to Rose Festival themes, and are encouraged to create their own family-friendly fun ideas to share with the greater Festival community.