I have had a booth and walked the festival. I have not been down there later than 8pm I have never had problems with loud, drunk or obnoxious people. Everyone is so loving caring and have so much to share. I love the since of community and the idea of a FREE street festival read more

I was alright with last Thursday until i realized that many of my favorite establishments on NE Alberta have begun to close their doors on this day due to the chaos this monthly summer street festival brings. What does it say about a street festival that has bars closing on a night that would bring them a ton of business on a Thursday night? This event just seems to be a crazy drunkn' free for all. I think i will pass on this more often than not. read more

Last Thursday - LED hula hoop! - Festivals Near Me - Portland, Oregon

I went to Last Thursday...great energy! There was so much to look at...it was a visual overload! I went with a group of friends, and it was hard to keep track of one another. One person would stop to look at something, while the group kept going forward. Our group ended up spread out all over Alberta Street. The close parts of Alberta Street to vehicle traffic, and there were pedestrians packed on the street! There were people on stilts, fire performers, live musicians, hula hoopers, painted people, food vendors, arts and crafts galore. People walking their pets. Not just your typical dog. I saw someone carrying a rabbit, two baby pigs in a wagon, a parrot on a shoulder. The general mood of the crowd was upbeat. I don't think I saw a single angry person. So much fun, I can't wait to do it again! read more

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Last Thursday has had better days. Much better. Quite a few friends moved into the neighborhood in the 90's. They are creative people and artists. We had a great Halloween party when friend of a friend bought one of the many a vacant buildings on the street. "Vacant building on Alberta", good luck finding that today! When individual artists selling on the street in the Pearl District were driven out by Pearl businesses, they created Alberta's Last Thursday. Some musicians started a marching band. DJ's brought their music. There was hooping and fire performing. Many late night house and yard parties. Lam's was a good spot. Always fire involved! As mentioned, the clown house often did something crazy and fun. Like bike jumping, mud wrestling, fire and clowning. Fast forward to today. It's not as wild, more all ages, more suburban spectators. But it is still worth enjoying for the people watching. Or get a bite in one of the outdoor spots and let it flow by. Be respectful parking and leave room around people's driveways. The last Thursday in August may not be as vibrant, some of the performers are packing up for out-of-town festivals. The problem with the event is that the businesses who benefit from the night itself, and from the year round businesses, that would not be there except for the artists, do not want to pay for the event. The businesses that benefit are the bars, restaurants and landlords. From time to time you will hear a landlord claiming to have founded Last Thursday. Question is how much are they willing to pay in each month to Last Thursday which made their bank? Those businesses are like, "let the artists pay - they have plenty of money, right?" In fact, most artists selling there break even on materials and if they are lucky, earn less than a dollar an hour for their labor. Those Alberta businesses benefitting, with a few exceptions, have always been cheapskates. They don't support the Alberta Street Fair. I know this because friends are organizers of that event. You can see yourself from this list, many prosperous bars and restaurants are missing, and the amounts contributed are sad: http://albertamainst.org/who-we-are/supporter/. The bars, by and large, don't support the costs of Last Thursday, but they benefit from it with their best nights of the entire year. An exception has been Binks, which has donated money to cover the Last Thursday costs. The mayor's office wants to make it into the tame Alberta Street Fair. Keep Portland tame! The fire chief appointed by Randy Leonard has essentially banned fire performance in Portland despite no safety incidents and repeated attempts by the performers to work with her. Then we have this gem: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/portland_lemonade_stand_runs_i.html There is a good argument that someone has to pay for portapotties, street cleaning (litter - WTF!), garbage cans. Yes some TriMet buses have to be rerouted. Are police extra, or is that their job? That someone should be the bars and restaurants, maybe food carts, or other disposable container food and drink vendors, generating trash to be picked up, not the artists. Then there are various crazy talking organizers claiming to manage it as a way to support themselves. Likely the neighborhood association will kill it. Neighborhood homeowners have benefited handsomely from increased property values, although they still pay property taxes on a fraction of of the current value. They can walk to businesses that would not be there without the artists work since the 90's. "But hey, 5 nights a year is too much inconvenience! We demand you conform to our little vision of Stepford". See it while you can. read more

A bit too nuts, dark, crazy, and free-for-all for me tonight.....we went the whole entire way....from about 35th west to about 13th or so! The highlight and most fun: seeing what new food places have landed and taken root on NE Alberta.....like... WAFFLE WINDOW and Pine State now only blocks apart, on the same street??!!! Whaa----- Salt & Straw, queues out the door A Voodoo Donut mobile truck....all pink! Tons of places open late...Bernie's still looking great, Ciao Vito is still dark and romantic, Chaaba Thai on Vita's old spot, and Vita Cafe in a large space across the street. Wanna try Knock Back sometime...as well as Hana. was still happening at 2030 tonight...everything still open, and the music thumping so loud, audible for blocks around! read more

Finally went to Last Thursday after living in Portland for a year. It's pretty cool, I enjoyed it. The good: The people watching is priceless. You've got an endless variety of people in attendance. The street performers are kind of fun. New ones pop up as soon as you're out of earshot from the last one (sometimes sooner). The art. I actually expected to see more venders selling their art, but the stuff that was there was pretty wacky. The bad: Holy sh*t was it crowded. You move like a herd of cattle, plodding slowly down the street. That aspect takes a bit of the fun out of it. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to get a drink someplace... read more

Last Thursday is for people that wouldn't be caught dead at First Thursday - well, at least for the most part. This is a block party of epic proportions, so make sure you have your party pants on! Be prepared to deal with crowds, as this thing has gotten crazy popular in the last few years. The later it gets, the crazier - complete with a night-ending street sweeper a la New Orleans, effectively ending the party and cleaning off the hippie juices that flow so freely :) If you like music of all types, you will find a different band on each corner - from a cute little kid singing Beatles covers, to funk, to african drum circles, there is a little something for every musical preference. Street food is in abundance and is mostly delicious and fantastic - but beware the neighborhood peeps that try to sell you watermelon from their front porch...and if you can get in, the restaurants and bars on Alberta can be fun as long as you get a seat and are able to place orders. This event is a trip and GREAT people watching. If you want to see Portland at its craziest, I would suggest making a night of it. Be well prepared to circle around, or try to find alternative transportation as parking is a beast to deal with. If you are a portlander, you want to have experienced this at least once. read more

Lemonade Revolt! Last Thursday made national headlines last month when some bureaucratic buffoon shut down a 7 year old girl's lemonade stand. The entire city of Portland was embarrassed and local anarchists decided to protest at the August Last Thursday by asking EVERYONE to set up a lemonade stand. Take that, Johnny Law! I guess the city thought there was going to be BIG trouble and sent out the Po-Po en masse. If there was any outrageous lemonade shenanigans, they'd nip it in the bud! Of course, the celebration went off without a hitch. There were quite a few lemonade stands, but they were certainly out-numbered by the police officers. I walked by a group of cops and one of them sheepishly smiled at me. They actually looked mighty uncomfortable; standing around, shuffling their feet and wondering what the heck they were doing out there on Alberta Street. What a waste of public resources. The security that was arranged by local organizers clearly had things well in hand. We had a great time listening to the live music and checking out the cool artwork. My favorite vendor at this Last Thursday was a little girl who was selling "Funny Jokes" for $0.25. She had a big ol' jar of money and I'm pretty sure there's no way the health inspectors could shut her down. I love the independent spirit of this neighborhood. Last Thursday is a great party, and I hope the bureaucrats can be successfully prevented from mucking it up. Once they start regulating it to death, it will be just another run of the mill street fair. I hope there's going to be one more in September. read more

Tonight was my first Last Thursday (end of May), and I almost didn't go because I was tired from my first week of work. If only I didn't have to work on Fridays! I still went anyways, and was glad I did, even though I only went from 15th to about 27th. I think it goes up to around 35th? My friend and I parked on 15th and walked a few blocks up to Alberta. It wasn't too hard to find parking, we went around 8:30 pm, just as the sun was starting to set. For food carts, I saw a huge crowd around the Koi Fusion truck (Korean fusion), and saw Village Crepery, some pulled pork cart, kettlecorn cart, sugarcane juice cart, kombucha tea, and a few others. I'm most interested in food, but there's also a bunch of street performers (flame jugglers, bicyclists, dancers, people willing to hit you with a raft paddle, musicians and bands of course, etc). And lots of homemade crafts and photography. Since I'm from California, I have to make my obligatory comparison-to-California comment. I think to sum it up in one sentence, Last Thursdays definitely reminds me of Berkeley, California. In the short time I've been living here in Portland (after 3 years of living in Berkeley), I would have to say Portland feels very much like the Berkeley of Oregon. I recommend that we make them sister cities! [are they already?] Does anyone know the hours of the fair? That would be helpful for visitors coming for the first time. I heard it's from 6:30 or 7 to pretty late... read more

Went to Last Thursday yesterday. I'd never been before. I started on first thursdays back in the day and now my last thursday of the month is booked as well. Damn, what to do on the other thursdays?......? I had just come from crashing a block party for yuppy pearl district residents and was feeling a bit tipsy (adjective: 1 : unsteady, staggering, or foolish from the effects of liquor : fuddled 2 : unsteady, askew a -tipsy angle-) from the chardonnay so I will try to sum up what I do recall of Last Thursday: 1. firedancing (!!) 2. a-LOT of people 3. bars 4. jamison whiskey (:)) 5. drunk people dancing aka all I need to be happy. I will see you next month, Last Thursday. read more

What a fun street fair! I loved last Thursday. I would totally recommend it to anyone, but don't stay too late or you'll end up walking down the street in a giant mob of high school students and wonder how you ended up there. I loved everything about it- the costumes, the quirky outfits, the food, the musicians, the random/unpredictable entertainment. I brought my boyfriend here who was visiting from out of town and it was the perfect introduction to Portland. There were a few guys with armloads of lavender, handing out flowers for free (just because!). I ended up buying a cup of delicious home-brewed ginger kombucha off of someone's front lawn from a guy who was wearing no shoes and kept his money on the grass. Maybe not the smartest decision I've ever made, but I don't regret it! Check it out! read more

I think that if I visit again next month under different circumstances I would be able to give Last Thursday higher praises. I came out for Last Thursday with a large group of friends to celebrate my birthday. With that size of group it was next to impossible to just wander and explore and enjoy all the happenings. I had to make my way out there from Tigard, which meant I was in traffic for an hour. Uuuuugggghhhhhhh. Once I got off of I-5 there was a lot of stop and go having to go through traffic lights. Eventually Alberta is closed to through traffic so you'll need to turn off timely and then try to look for parking. I actually did not have too much difficulty finding a spot, but be ready for some parallel parking! It almost felt like a big block party, without the overt drinking in public. There was live music and performers everywhere, local artists and crafters, stilt walkers and costumes galore! Will have to check it out again! read more

If your into people watching, this is the place to be. Last Thursdays draws out the young and old, just be prepared to socialize with all ages. There's always attractive people who attend this event. This event always offers a variety of entertainment for any age. If your not into the entertainment, there are several shops, restaurants, food carts, and bars that are worth checking out. Yes, Last Thursday can be a family experience, but the streets can get a wild and crowded throughout the night. Parents would want to get the little ones out of earlier before all the drunk people start knocking them over(of course, not intentionally). Parking can be a hassle during this event. I would suggest parking several streets away and walking to Alberta st. read more

I am from Spokane WA. My friend had from Portland had a booth there so we went to check it out. Super fun! I will go any last Thursday I can :) read more

If anyone's been to Oakland's Art Murmor, this is kinda like that...only more focused on shopping...sorta... You can still go to galleries for free and wander, but as it's all along one street they're a bit easier to find. There's still your random people in tutus and people singing and hula hoopers, but the main difference is that there are more cafes and bars to wander into. You'll be glad you went if you like that type of vibe. I know I do! read more

Wowza! Looking to find something UNIQUE! This is it! Warning: Not for the faint of heart or elderly. Our parking lot which was a block or so, from all the festivities used only quarters, interesting. Luckily we were stocked up. There is so much to see! Very crowded! ALL different types of people. Bring cash or trades, LOTS of one of a kind gifts...be prepared to get the heck out of the road at closing time. The city and police don't mess around about quitting time. Many of the permanent business close during this event but there are plenty of other food/food truck options. All n all great way to experience the flavor of Portlandia! read more

I now live in the NE, two blocks down from Alberta, and I get it... I am required to use recyclable grocery bags, have at least 2 "I stop for bicycles" bumper stickers on my eco friendly car's bumper, and drink lots of kombucha. I even glanced through the "How to be a Hipster Guide for Dummies" someone threw on my porch after I moved in. What I don't get is how a group of people striving so hard to be individuals can throw a monthly event celebrating their uniqueness and end up with everyone looking, and acting just alike. If communism required two blunts a day per comrade is this what it would look like? I went to Last Thursday last year and it wasn't that bad. There were several genuine artists and displays that were unique and not found anywhere else but on Alberta St. This year its like someone went insane with their cloning tool and started adding feather hair accessories to every stand. "Its okay, we're SO obviously not identical because your feather is from a bald eagle and mine is from a crow." Last year there was the cute guy offering bad advice for five cents. Thursday night I saw at least seven stands of people offering "advice" and badly drawn pictures of people's souls. As long as I am ranting I should mention the fact that selling rocks with rhinestones glued to them does not make you 'self employed' or 'spiritual', it makes you an idiot with too much time on your hands, and a borrowed glue gun. I say all this to say bring back the actual artists and individualism that this affair was created to represent and support. Burn the hair feathers, pet rocks, free prayer stands, and the cheap coke bottle top jewelry. read more

There are good days and there are bad days. Lots of politics surround this event and you may end up being a victim of circumstance on that particular Thursday. It starts as a true family friendly art display and by nightfall turns in to pretty much chaos. The fun kind though. Sensory overload. Dance parties. Stilt walkers. Break-dancing gnomes. That sort of thing. Personally I am a fair weather guy. It's going to be much more enjoyable if it's nice out. This event is one that truly embodies everything Portland. read more

The art here ranges from the really bad, to the really grotesque to the WTF were you thinking to the occasional moment of wow that's pretty damn great! That's what I love about this place you never know what you will find and it seems to be an endless street of locals peddling their goods. Alberta turns into one big party for Last Thursday and it goes on for blocks and blocks and blocks. Take your time walking down the street and when you get way down there and feel pooped and want to sit down, head over to the Kennedy School for a pint or twelve... read more

Last night was my first ever Last Thursday and went with my bestie and dog. We started off early (around 7) at 10th and walked our way up Alberta. I would definitely recommend going early to avoid the stampede of people but if you like people watching like me, it seems like the prime people watching time would be around 8:30. We ran into kettle corn trucks, vegan & organic cotton candy, roasted corn smothered in mayo and spices, refreshing fruit cups, thai trucks serving curry, and even the Voodoo Doughnut pink truck! There were so many crafts to buy and I was amused by how many parents were willing to pimp out their kids to tell funny jokes or sell lemonade. Overall it was a fun experience and very "Portland". Next time I'll leave my small dog at home because she got stepped on every once in awhile! read more

I dig it. Last Thursday is pretty fun, though super crowded. There is a lot of random shit to look at, from people's artwork, crafts, junk, to the clowns and street performers. Yeah, some of it is humdrum now and blah, but some of it is still entertaining. Places stay open later and have a bunch of artwork to look at. People are generally buzzed or wasted by the end of the eve. I think that may be part of the experience, getting trashed and buying random stuff. I like how recently they started to shut down alberta so those of us not driving are allowed to take over the streets and make room for everyone. Ooh, there is one person that always has yummy vegan cupcakes--those make me totally happy. I've heard people call LT portland's mardi gras, but i think that's pushing it. a lot. It's cool, and you never know what will be out. or who. Check it out. read more

Yay, I'm a fan! You may ask why I'm not praising the "best ever" fair on earth, well that's because I never got to go on a ferris wheel, dunk a homely cheer leader in a swim tank, or eat an elephant ear. Other than those few misguidances by the Alberta Street Fair commissioners, I'm totally into it! ;) This thing is really cool. Despite not being able to do a few traditional acts like drowning your high school crush in some dirty dunk tank water, or eating traditional 1,000+ calorie food, you can have a phenomenal time here just people watching, visiting local food carts, stopping by street vendor booths, and visiting the local watering holes (bars). This place is CRAY-CRAY on Last Thursdays! Super fun, super local, super Portland! People here are almost more here to show off their Portlandisms, strut their skinny jeans, weird hair, tattoos, dogs, cats, crazy street art, music, etc etc. Just go, be weird, drink beer, and laugh! There's my advice, thank me later! read more

If you live in Portland and haven't been to Last Thursday, you're missing out on a staple. It's kind of like Saturday Market but all on one street that gets closed to cars. And it's more diverse because you don't pay to have a spot, instead it's on a first come basis and bunch of the business on Alberta are open too. read more

Being away at college for the past few years, I've been hearing about this legendary Last Thursday forever! I finally got to go last night and had a blast!! Usually downtown you might see one or two very 'portland' marinated individuals...tattooed beer-loving bikers, ya know...but last night was like, they all came out on the same street on the same night to party! There were tons of funky lookin food buses that smelled AMAZING and trendy bars along the street as well, but the whole place was packed shoulder to shoulder. Get there early, parking was hard but we didn't mind at all once we got there! We got there later when people were getting rowdier and tipsy, but I think it would have been fun during the daylight as well! read more

Last Thur spans 15 blocks on NE Alberta St (from 15th - 30th). It's a perfectly Portland street fair. There's food vendors, plus tons of people selling everything else! From clothing to jewelry to local artwork. It's packed with people, especially during the hot summer months. I might not suggest it for kids after dark, as there are a lot of weirdos! Overall, it's a great time and always fun :) read more

Love this event! Great energy.. awesome variety of art, kitsche, people, food, etc. I had a great time at my first 'Last Thursday' and will definitely make this a regular event! read more

i am a vender Gunsmoke Kettle Corn i love going to Last Thursday for it is right in my own area of town, most of the people are nice. I see all kinds of stuff for sell and i buy from another Vendor my dinner for the night. Dixon Rib's are one of the best. You will find great foood on 23th. Come check up out and support the vendor's so we will keep coming back next year... Happy Shopping... read more