PORTLAND — The Portland Rose Festival has canceled its big signature events for 2021, including the Grand Floral and Starlight parades and CityFair.
The Portland Rose Festival announced Monday that its traditional downtown parades, waterfront fair and other big outdoor events will be canceled this year, marking the second straight year the spring festivities have been shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, Rose Festival events this year will look much like they did in 2020. There will once again be an at-home Porch Parade, a virtual Fleet Week, the Rose Festival Treasure Hunt and a small, outdoor ceremony for the coronation of the Rose Festival Queen.
“Oregon is not quite ready yet for big outdoor events,” Jeff Curtis, CEO of the Portland Rose Festival Foundation, said in a news release Monday. “The health and safety of our community is still our top priority as we plan for a Rose Festival season to engage and inspire the community once again this year.”
Cases of COVID-19 have been dropping in Oregon, with Multnomah County currently sitting at “moderate” risk of spreading the virus, according to the Oregon Health Authority. That’s meant a loosening of restrictions at restaurants and museums, but not for mass gatherings, which are still prohibited in Oregon.
Even casual gatherings still have limits. According to the latest guidance on public activities, outdoor social gatherings are limited to no more than 10 people from two households in Multnomah County. Outdoor entertainment establishments, like amphitheaters and public gardens, are limited to 150 people in “moderate” risk counties.
The Rose Festival is just the latest big event to cancel for 2021. Major cancellations so far include the Oregon Brewers Festival in Portland, Fourth of July fireworks at Fort Vancouver, Oregon International Air Show in Hillsboro, the Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest, Lincoln City Summer Kite Festival and Tigard Festival of Balloons.
Organizers of the Rose Festival said the event plans to be back for “Portland’s ultimate family reunion” in 2022, complete with “the biggest and best fireworks ever” on Memorial Day weekend.
“During the wartime years in the 1940s, Rose Festival was able to provide hope for the community despite the inability to present its parades,” David Todd, president of the Portland Rose Festival Foundation said Tuesday. “We have been here for more than a century despite many challenges, and we will be here when the community is ready for big outdoor events again as we start down the runway to the traditional Rose Festival in 2022.”
