As a native Portlander, it's incredibly insulting to have the prime 4th of July location for the…read moreCity of Portland taken over by this festival, which was free with donations for DECADES but now charges $55 and won't allow families to bring outside food. THIS WAS WHERE PORTLAND FAMILIES HAD THEIR PICNICS AND WATCHED FIREWORKS! This festival should be made free with donations again or move to a different weekend. The festival is nice, BUT Portlanders have a right to use their own huge, central park location for a 4th of July celebration EVERYONE can attend, like any other city. I have no idea why people have not stood up to this outrage the past several years.

Back after a 2 year absence (pandemic) the Blues Festival did not disappoint. They always have a…read morefantastic lineup consisting of some of the best blues artists around and also some jam bands and folk music that crosses all genres. This high energy event attracts people from Portland and all over the country. Dancing, chilling, people watching - it's perfect for all of that. The festival takes place on the waterfront lawn in front of RiverPlace Marina with views of the Williamette River and bridges. There is not any shade so definitely come prepared with a hat and sunblock. This year the weather was perfect, low 70s and some days overcast, but other years it's been high 90s with blazing sun and lots of sunburned people. There are four stages, two showcase the more well known bands. You can purchase seats or bring your own chair and blanket and sit in the lawn, which is what we do. But get there early or be prepared to squeeze into a spot. Those lucky enough to own or have a friend with a boat, dock in the Marina adding to the ambiance. Even kayaks and paddle boarders flock to this area to enjoy the music. The smell of weed permeates; smoking pot is common, even before it was legal, so just be aware if the smell turns you off. It's everywhere, not limited to specific seating areas. There is an area dedicated to local venders selling music memorabilia, jewelry, clothing (including tie-dye and embroidery), artwork, crafts and local services. Also food carts with varied cuisines, definitely something for everyone. Prices range from $8-15. You can also buy beer, wine and cider. Water stations are throughout and there are lots of portable bathrooms underneath the Hawthorne Bridge. The Festival culminates on July 4th with a phenomenal fireworks display on the river. They shoot them from a barge situated right in front of the Hawthorne Bridge and the fireworks reflect on the water. It's spectacular! Trucks and cars often stop on the various freeways overlooking the river and families gather on the lawns of the surrounding park, esplanade and residential area to picnic and watch the display. The Blues Festival used to be free with a donation of canned goods but now they charge a fee. You can purchase single day tickets or passes for the entire festival. Early bird prices are the way to go. Check their website for details.

My favorite street festival in Portland! Yes, it is super crowded. Like side by side people filling…read morethe entire street! So go with expectations! The bars, restaurants and shops along this stretch of Mississippi extend their business into the sidewalks and the street itself is lined with tents occupied by vendors of every imaginable kind. Jewelry, clothing, food products, pottery, art, leather, macrame, handbags, belts, wood carvings, plants, massage oils, baked goods, Tarot Card readers and more! Many are handmade from local artisans, some are mass produced, and some resale. It's a mixed bag. There are three stages with music from local bands playing throughout the day and night, schedule provided online so you can plan accordingly. If you choose to sit within the gated area, you must be 21 or older since they serve alcohol in this area. Especially love the Norman Sylvester Band - they always get the crowd up and dancing and we plan our time to coincide with their performance! The bars and restaurants get super crowded, obviously. Bar hopping is the thing at this street fair! The restaurants and bars require people to be 21 or older, so families be prepared and choose appropriate. To satisfy your hunger, stop at one or more of the many amazing Food Trucks, so popular in Portland and now part of Portland's appeal. The trucks are located in dedicated sections at some of the cross streets, like N. Failing, and also throughout Mississippi. Ribs are always in high demand, as is the fried chicken! There are Thai, African, Mediterranean, Southern, Mexican, Chinese, American food trucks with some trucks offering healthy bowls (Fuego) and crepes (NE Creperie). An endless variety to satisfy everyone's cravings and budget. The Bourbon Beignets cart is a must, their New Orleons style beignets are to die for! On a sunny day, it gets even hotter because of the crowds - escape into the shops for Air Conditioning. Parking is exactly as expected at a crowded street festival in an old neighborhood with on-street parking. Take Uber or a Lyft or park a few blocks away. Fortunately because of my tiny car, I can always squeeze into a spot! This fair is dog friendly. And of course people friendly, attracting so much diversity that you will wonder, is this Portland? Just remember it's challenging to walk down the street as a single so pushing strollers or holding hands of toddlers may be difficult. Same with a leashed dogs. If your dog does not enjoy crowds, I'd leave them home. The Mississippi Street Fair is a great way to spend a few hours, day or night, for the best people watching, great music, delicious food and a feeling of community. I already have it in my calendar for next year!

Visited from WA…read more Cons: There's plenty of artists but not artisans. If you're looking for artisan work this is not the place A mix of handmade stuff with a lot of commercial booths Plenty of food options but many booths have hard to understand menus, not well organized Overall food wasn't very attractive. Not sure if it's presentation or something else. Not enough seating for food Pros: Great people watching experience Plenty of food options even though not very attractive Music stages Plenty of restaurants around in case you don't want to eat at the fair Overall it was an ok experience. I wouldn't come back here.

It's a naked bike ride, what more is there to say. It can be fun and interesting. Be open minded…read moreand remember it's for a great cause. It's to protest the world's dependency on oil.

The only problem is the date. It should be a Saturday in July. Its mostly at night and it was a…read morerefreshing 60 degrees. Cathedral Park was the best start location in five years. The band, stage, slope for viewing, just perfect.

We attended the 6th annual Clackamas County Lavender Festival which is held just outside of Carver,…read moreOregon. What a great location. I didn't realize this location was there. I had a great time listening to the band and drinking lavender lemonade. They had several craft vendors on site as well as free demonstrations on how to make lavender wreathes. The Clackamas River Basin Council had a nice set up of native plants in a portable display kind of fun to check out, however, the placement was next to face painting so I don't think they got as much foot traffic as they had hoped for. They had plenty of u cut lavender. I'm sure they will continue to have that throughout the season. Check out the scene. It's really nice there.

Went to their 10'th Annual Lavender Festival for my first time here and it was so lovely! The first…read moresite of seeing fields of lavender just blew my mind as I was in the parking area from afar walking in. I was welcomed with the sound of festivities with live bands, drinks, food, various vendors, and u-pick lavenders with a choice of making it into a lavender bouquet or wreath. This place is beautiful and has efficient sprinkler mist system and waterfall ponds for kids to play in, which was perfect for this very warm sunny day. The festival lasts for two days, so this year it was on June 25-26, 2016. The event is free! I was bummed that I forgot to bring a nice camera. Great lavender fields for photography! The scent of lavender everywhere just adds that aromatic touch to the whole experience. *These lavender bushes attract a lot of bees. There will be many bees per lavender bush, but they don't really bother you.

Now before you go getting all snarky with the name of this 36 year old Vancouver institution, I…read moremust note that Stephen Colbert already made fun of it: http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=80965 So don't worry about being obligated to step up to the plate. It's cool, we've got it. That being said, the Couve's Sausage Fest is an annual stronghold in the city. The Friday - Sunday party every first weekend of September has become the event in which the city welcomes the fall. The whole going is a cash only party for local families. There are carnival rides and games for the kids, a craft fair, awesome live (and usually local) music all day & everyday, and yummy Oktoberfest-esque food to munch on while you mill around all the activities. An extensive beer garden also takes up a good portion of the site with $4.00 domestics and $5.00 local micros on tap. While it is a little more spendy than the local happy hour, proceeds from the fest all go to the elementary school owned by the grounds that the event is held on. If you're looking for something to do regardless of age, but don't really like the huge crowds that county fairs tend to bring this is a nice alternative. If anything it's worth a few wholehearted laughs and a spin on the tilt-a-whirl on a pleasant late summer night. Hmm...maybe I'll get around to making a UYE in 2009.

First of all, you really should come up with a better name. Secondly, if you're going to call it a…read moresausage festival, you should probably have more that ONE mediocre, at best, type of sausage. If I'd have known this before hand, I'd have saved the trip, gone to Otto's or New Season's, picked up some GOOD sausage, and had my own sausage fest. Yeah, I said it. The only reason this gets 2 stars is that if you ignore the fact that it's supposed to be a sausage festival, then it's not a bad little carnival event. If you're into that, check it out next year - just don't expect anything special in the way of sausages.

I returned to the fair on 8/10/25 to watch the Monster Trucks. I seen the 2pm show and it was good…read more I will defiantly return to watch the Monster Trucks again next year. I returned to the Hog Daddy's tent to get a 4.00 refill in my Fair souvenir cup. I had to leave the Fair early due to the heat. It was 100 degrees out. I already can't wait till next year to visit the Fair again.

I returned to the fair again this year (2026) and must say if the food, rides, and games prices was…read moreas cheap as the admission tickets to get in to the fair, more people would come and/ or return. The price gouging once inside is what keeps people from returning. Let me start off with the pros about the fair. I enjoyed all of the farm animals. Curly the Camel was awesome, Dogstown, The Pirate Parrot Show, Evergreen Dance Academy, Magician Adam the Great, and Tyzen the Comedy Hipnotist was all great shows. Now for the Grandstand I enjoyed seeing Collective Soul, Extreme Bull Riding, Mutton Bustin', and of corse the Monster Trucks never a disappoint. One thing I missed from last year was not at the fair this year is the Budeweiser horses and wagon. I felt the I love the 90's Tour Concert featuring Tone Loc, Young MC, & Vanilla Ice could have been better. They played a couple of there own songs and a whole lot of other singers songs from the 90's. To be honest I have been to lots of concerts in my life and I think this one was the worst one I have ever seen. Looking for a deal on food, I found the Greek Cuisine. For 22.00 tax included you get a Gyro with choice of Lamb or chicken with Garlic Fries and a drink. I wish more restaurants would have a meal deal. The cons about the fair was the prices. I expected prices to be more expensive than outside of the fair but all of the food was outrageously expensive. Large Corndogs for 15.00, corn on the cob for 10.00, Turkey legs for 20.00, Popcorn was 9.00, most burgers started at around 10.00 with no side or drink included. 10.00 don't sound expensive but by the time you add fries and a drink its between 25.00-30.00 What a scam! Even the lemonade was expensive 8.00 for the first one and 5.00 for refills. I wasn't aware lemons, sugar, and water was so expensive. Crazy! Another expensive thing was the rides. 1.00 a ticket and most rides was 7 tickets. And the games was around 4 to 6 tickets. They did sell ride bracelets for 35.00 but if you have little ones that can't ride many rides due to height requirements and are limited. Ride bracelets are not worth it. There was no special discounts or bracelets for the games. Another thing that was new this year i did not like was having to wait till Approximately around 6pm till we could get into the Grandstands to reserve a seat. Security would not let anyone up to sit in the bleachers. All of these prices may not seem expensive to some people, but with a family of 4 or 5 that all adds up quickly. I ate at Philly Diner and had a Philly Cheesesteak and got the worst sandwich I have ever had. It cost 11.00 which wasn't badly priced for Cheesesteak but when I recived it the bun was cut in half and the meat, onion and peppers was very greasy and made the bread soggy and the sandwich was overfilled. I went to take 1 bite and all the cheesesteak fillings emptied out the bottom and was no longer a sandwich anymore. In a Philly cheesesteak the bread isn't supposed to be cut all the way threw so you don't loose all the cheesesteak fillings. I ended up throwing that hot mess away and was very disappointed. Will definitely not be eating there again. Definitely no one working here was from Philadelphia that was for sure! The only things I didn't do at the Clark County Fair was the Midland Country Music Concert, Rough Stock Rodeo, SxS Racing, Tuff Trucks, professor Smart Sience Show, Break-A-Boyz, and Mars Encounter Live Show. Next year I will Probably not doing any rides or games and will bring my own cooler with cold drinks and food in the fair with me. What an expensive scam they are running here. If prices go up again next year it just might be a 1 star rating. I defiantly think it's time for whoever is in charge of the fair to get some new food options and a new ride vendor to come in to the fair and kick the expensive scammers to the curb. And invite local business that won't run off there customers with expensive prices. I actually think that instead of vendors from out of state they should invite local food truck vendors from threw out Clark County and the State of Washington and Oregon to support local business instead of vendors that more than likely came up from California. Butler Amusement is located in Fairfield California. A Local Amusement Vendor is Funtastic Traveling Amusment located in Portland. Very local. I will Yelp and Google Review an update again next year. Hopefully the Clark County Fair improves and stops the expensive scams in there Fairgrounds.

Went to the fair last night. Almost as good as in 2024. Good quese briria with fresh and hot soup…read more The fried oreos were great too! Lots of fun rides, wish there was the plant vendor indoors who lot of great plants last time I visited. Brads reptiles house is always fun!

This is a pretty small fair with the usual fried food, rides, and animals. It's free to enter, but…read moreI'm not convinced it's worth the price of admission. If you don't want to ride the rides, there isn't a lot to see or do.

The Vancouver Farmer's Market is truly exceptional. They have a variety of vendors - jewelry,…read morecrafts, woodwork, cat nip, bakeries, veggies, produce, artisanal clothing, soaps, coffee, wine, plants, gorgous fresh flower bouquets - all lining wide streets making its easy to walk around and not be enveloped in crowds. In the late summer, early fall the fruit and produce is abundant! Juicy peaches, plums, cherries, the last of the blueberries and blackberries, rhubarb, eggplant, tricolored peppers, and beets fill the stalls. everything so colorful and delicious. Was excited to happen upon the Catnip Takeout booth filled with the most adorable handmade, felted cat toys that of course contain catnip. The owner gives you a takeout box and you fill it with the toys of your choice. She had veggies, mushrooms, hearts, eyeballs, bees, round balls, fruit- all adorable! since my house is very spa like with shades of cream, gray and blues, I was excited to find so many options in these colors. My cat immediately began batting the ball around the minute I gave it to her! The nursery here is the biggest and best I've ever seen at a Farmers Market. The variety of plants was impressive and all were healthy and thriving. they also sell sun catchers, perfect for inside a window or in your garden - every garden deserves a bit of whimsy imo. Lots of food carts serving a variety of cuisines. some are within the market, several more line the street on the outside of the market. The gyros caught my attention, the scent of grilled lamb everywhere. it didn't disappoint! I ordered the mega traditional which had extra meat so I could have half for lunch and the other half for dinner. Love that this market is open both Saturday and Sundays until 3pm April through October. Saturday they open at 9am; on Sundays they open at 10am. Parking is on the street, use parking kitty to pay. On a Sunday at 12:30 I had no issue finding a spot close by.

We stopped here on a Sunday morning before heading to Portland. If you go early, parking is not…read morehard to find. It's a very large market. There are fresh fruits and vegetables; honey; smoked fish, and prepared foods not on a truck. Plus there are food trucks. There are rows of arts and crafts. Candles, clothes, and other household items can be found; I even saw knife sharpening. Basically, you could skip the grocery store and Home Depot and just shop local artisans. The highlight was fresh heirloom tomatoes that looked incredibly tasty, They oozed freshness and flavor. Since we are in a hotel, we did not buy any but they looked like they would be an excellent salad. Everyone (vendors) were friendly and seemed to know their repeat customers. Market-goers (customers) were having a good time. There is an area for kids go play. The ambiance is laid back and family friendly. We'll be back in Vancouver and plan to return again. It's a great way to spend some quality time with the family in gorgeous summer weather.

How can you not like a old fashioned small town festival? Held in Pioneer Park it provides a fun…read morevenue to wander around the woods. Local community groups such as the Kiwanis Club, Boy Scout's, Sandy High ect. provide a variety of fair food everything from elephant ears to corn on the cob and BBQ. Artisans from all over the Northwest some out to show their wares. As well as bands, dance troupes and singers. In my opinion the big draw is the art booths and food vendors. However, they have a pageant featuring a princess or Queen in each age group, carnival rides for the kids, and other events throughout the week. However, if you aren't directly involved in the community of Sandy, the vendors are the big draw. It's exactly what it sounds like an old fashion community fair!