Celebrating June and the Sun

June 20 was the summer solstice. Thank goodness for the sun. Didn’t it feel great? The day brought back memories of the Summer Solstice parade in Santa Barbara, CA, where I earned my undergrad. This parade is a true home-grown party with local floats, fun music and people dancing in the streets. All year long, the kids of the city save blown-out eggs (actually, it is probably their mothers who do), and then they fill them with confetti and decorate them. They used to sell these to parade-goers for a quarter each; undoubtedly, the price has risen since then. Parade-goers crack them open and spray confetti with glee as they dance away. When the party finished, everyone pitched in with clean up duty – which is another party in itself. Upon hearing about the “Cleanest Parade in America” honor given to the Rose Festival’s Starlight Parade, I had to pause for a moment. When I first moved to the City of Roses, I went to the parades and I was impressed at the imagination and whimsy that infected the participants. You could feel the welcoming embrace of the spirit of what makes Portland unique. There was a lot of laughter and amusement for all. Fast forward to 2008. The Starlight was sleek, smooth, almost too perfect. The fire/ladder crew at the start of the parade was the best part. Perhaps everyone was saving on light bulbs and generators, but where were the colorful lights that were supposed to light up the parade? It was like the little sister to the Grand Floral Parade, another perfect sleek corporatized parade. I think I had better join the debate on whether the Rose Festival has gotten too big to be meaningful to Portlanders. I live in Portland and would like to be part of the festival, but after being part of the crowd at these parades, I sure don’t feel a part of Portland.

Has Portland forgotten its warm welcoming feeling? Only a few people almost-half-heartedly waved and cheered as the rodeo queens rode by on their flower-decked prancing horses, the floats rolled by with their amazing creations, and the bands marched by…from…Colorado? Minnesota? (Are they from Portland sister cities, too? From Kaoshiung, I understand – that’s a Portland sister city and it makes perfect sense for them to be here! And the Portland combined honor band should be larger than it is!)

I have to agree with Phil Stanford from the Portland Tribune, about being time to rethink the Portland Rose Festival. If you look at the Rose Festival website, you will see a long list of Rose Festival-sanctioned events that look as though the Rose Festival Association is just trying to find a way to barely break even. I suppose I can understand that the Rose Festival organizers want to reach out to everybody, but…they have also successfully drained the spirit of a home-grown festival from what should be all-in wholehearted participation from everyone to be a part of something major and real and so Portland. The Salem World Beat Festival should stand alone without having to be “sanctioned” by the Rose Festival, as should the Multi-Cultural Food Music and Food Festival, the Golf Challenge, and nearly everything else on the list. What should stay? Everything having to do with the Royal Rosarians and roses should stay, of course. Portland Rose Festival Association board members – all 60+ of you – I implore you to bring the focus of the Rose Festival back home. Please. This should not be the New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses in Pasadena where international participation is expected. This is the Portland Rose Festival and Portland itself has somehow become lost.