A Year of Festivals in Portland

The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, July 4 to 8, presents more than 125 performances on four stages.

The eclectic lineup includes the venerable Pinetop Perkins, celebrating his 94th birthday with help from fellow Chicagoans Koko Taylor, Carey Bell and Lurrie Bell; the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Neville Brothers and Johnny Sansone from New Orleans; Joan Armatrading; Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks; Eric Burdon; and Savoy Brown.

The Pickathon Roots Music Festival presents bluegrass, country and folk performers from Aug. 3 to 5. It's hard to beat a lineup promising "songs for the drinking man and songs for the thinking man," from Chatham County Line; Langhorn Slim performing "folk music for the new, weird America"; and "Texas avant-hillbilly visionaries," the Danny Barnes Collective.

Or sign up to receive a free newsletter about the annual winter Portland Jazz Festival, with updates about the 2008 celebration.

Art for All

The city's premiere crafts fair, Art in the Pearl, is held each year on Labor Day weekend in the artsy Pearl District. More than 100 artists and artisans participate, and there's entertainment all day long, including Cuban, Chinese, Brazilian, klezmer and zydeco music.

If you can't make it then, try The Real Mother Goose, long the place to go in Portland for one-of-a-kind handcrafted items ranging from delicate blown-glass vases evoking the art nouveau era to sleek modern furniture crafted from exotic woods.

The clothing at Changes, the adjoining "designs to wear" shop, is likely to tempt even those who usually stick to tailored garments. Hawaiian shirts by Citron, elegant metallic-threaded tops by Genie the Weaver, and chenille jackets by Mina Norton are among many appealing items.

Twist galleries rely more heavily on whimsy: birdhouses made of old license plates, sculptural robots crafted from found objects and leather-upholstered benches painted with piano keys and musical notes. The collections are appealing, humorous and inspiring.

Festival Central

	Creativity in Bloom at the Rose Festival

Perhaps the longest-running and most elaborate of the area's festivals, appropriately enough, is the Portland Rose Festival, which marks its centennial in 2007 with a theme of "Tradition, Innovation and Celebration."

The festival runs from May 31 to June 10, and includes tall-ship river cruises, Chinese dragon boat races, parades, fireworks, a grand prix auto race and a Centennial Exposition, in which 100 years of Portland's history unfolds decade by decade.

Film festivals abound in Portland, including the Undead Film Festival May 11 to 12; one focusing on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft Oct. 5 to 7; and a documentary and experimental film festival.

Consider marking the 60th anniversary of the Roswell incident by attending a UFO Festival May 18 and 19. Broaden your horizons at the India Festival on Aug. 19. Or plan to attend the Wordstock Festival of Books Nov. 9 to 11.

And finally, there's even a special event for procrastinators, the Festival of the Last Minute on Dec. 16 to 24, a gift bazaar for those who put off their holiday shopping till it's almost too late.

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