Boulevard
Early June
www.portlandhorrorfilmfestival.com
Did you grow up mesmerized by Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, and the ubiquitous Vincent Price? Did you revel in the blockbuster horror films of the ’70s and ’80s—The Omen, The Exorcist, Halloween? Do you remember the cult classics of the ’80s, such as The Evil Dead, Lifeforce, and Night of the Comet? Do the horror spoofs—Scream, Scary Movie, Shaun of the Dead—tickle your funny bone? Or maybe your nightmares are spawned by the millennial masterpieces, movies such as The Ring, Paranormal Activity, and 30 Days of Night.
No matter how you like your spooky movies, the Portland Horror Film Festival will enthrall you with an outstanding lineup of under-the-radar independent works representing every subgenre of scary films—funny, gory, nerve-wracking, and flat-out scary, and all cooler and more innovative than anything you can see at the multiplex. Independent filmmakers are the ones creating fresh looks at horror, and you can see the best films from the horror masters of tomorrow at the Portland Horror Film Festival. From satanic guitars to zombie children to sweet, sweet revenge, this enthralling film fest has something for everyone, including films from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Italy, the Philippines, Greece, Norway, France, Australia, Turkey, Iran, and more.
Portland Horror Film Festival features myriad films along with Q&A sessions with filmmakers.
Beginning Thursday evening and running through Saturday, the event screens all movies at the historic Hollywood Theatre, packing some four dozen films into a three-day fright fest. Each year, the festival selects several full-length features and numerous short films that range from a minute or so to about half an hour in length, providing chills and thrills in masterfully concise movies. In addition to the movies themselves, the Portland Horror Film Festival includes casual meet-and-greet events and post-movie Q&A sessions with visiting filmmakers, along with a Saturday evening wrap-up party and awards ceremony.
Modestly priced festival tickets deliver a lot more bang for the buck than regular movie tickets, and attendees can choose between single-day tickets or three-day full-festival tickets. Full-event tickets provide access to all films and events throughout the weekend, and all tickets are available for early purchase at the event website.
RYE BEER FEST
Happy Valley (southeast of Portland)
Happy Valley Station, 13551 SE 145th Avenue
Mid-June
www.beerheard.com/rye-beer-fest
What exactly is a rye beer? Well, as the name might suggest, it’s a beer in which some portion of the barley malt is replaced with rye (usually malted rye), a lesser-known but similar grain. But there’s a lot more to it than that, especially in the beercentric Northwest, and that’s what Rye Beer Fest founder Kerry Finsand aims to teach ale aficionados at this flavorful and educational beer event held each year as part of the citywide Portland Beer Week.
Rye beer aficionados sample the offerings at the Rye Beer Fest.
Rye Beer Fest brings the region’s best rye beers—upwards of two dozen of them—under one roof, and perhaps the first thing attendees learn is just how much wonderful variation occurs in the flavor profiles of rye beers coming from brewers throughout the state. Rye beers can be earthy, tart, or spicy, and this family-friendly event (21-and-over for beer sampling/drinking) features a curated tap list consisting of a variety of beer styles utilizing this impactful grain. Expect rye beers ranging from saisons and IPAs to the traditional German style of Roggenbier. Each year, Rye Beer Fest features a wide assortment of breweries, from longstanding favorites to newly launched up-and-comers. Past lineups have included the likes of Stormbreaker (Portland), Ordnance (Boardman), Vagabond (Salem), Sedition (The Dalles), Bent Shovel (Oregon City), and many more.
Entry to the festival is free, but an inexpensive ticket package is needed to drink beer and includes four drink tickets (eight tickets with advance purchase online) plus the official event tasting glass; additional tickets are available for purchase (most beers cost one ticket per four-ounce sample and four tickets for a glassful). Food is available in eclectic abundance thanks to the eighteen food carts at Happy Valley Station, a you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it innovative, 3,800-square-foot, temperature-controlled food-cart pod.
Oregon’s only rye beer festival—and one of the few anywhere in the world—not only provides a joyous educational celebration of these unique ales, but also serves the community by donating proceeds to New Avenues For Youth, a local nonprofit that supports homeless and at-risk youth in Portland.
CIDER SUMMIT PDX
Portland
The Fields Neighborhood Park, 1099 NW Overton Street
Mid-June
Portland’s eclectic Pearl District hosts the region’s largest cider festival each June as Cider Summit PDX gathers a truly massive assemblage of local, regional, and international ciders and cider cocktails, with some 150 choices available from dozens of producers—truly a who’s who of cideries. Oregon’s ever-growing cider industry is well represented at this casual and friendly Friday/Saturday event, with the state’s best-known cider brands pouring samples alongside the small-batch producers. Each year, the lineup is announced on the event website, and one of the most alluring aspects of Cider Summit is its mercurial growth: each new year brings dozens of new ciders from established producers and new players alike—it’s one-stop shopping for ciderites who love the ever-expanding range of ciders produced in the Northwest and beyond.
Cider Summit PDX, its many tents forming a giant circle at The Fields Neighborhood Park (consult the event website in case the venue changes), also features a variety of local food vendors, along with live music provided by well-known regional artists. In fact, the Cascade Blues Association, which helps to produce the event music lineup, is one the beneficiaries of Cider Summit PDX. Another of the beneficiaries is DoveLewis Emergency Pet Hospital, and Cider Summit PDX is dog friendly, featuring a special Dog Lounge (as usual in dog-friendly Portland, bring baggies, a leash, and only friendly furred friends). Also, during the festivities, numerous cideries compete in the Fruit Cider Challenge, the winner being crowned by vote of attendees.
Cider Summit is an outdoor festival held during June in Portland’s Pearl District.
Tickets are available online and at a variety of bottle shops and other retail shops in Portland (see the list on the event website). Cider Summit PDX (a 21-and-over-only event) offers both general admission and VIP tickets, both at modest prices. General admission tickets (available online and at the gate) include a commemorative tasting glass and a set of tasting tickets; VIP tickets (available online only) include extra tasting tickets and special early entry on Friday. Attendees can buy additional tickets onsite (bring cash). Cider Summit PDX is just one incarnation of Cider Summit, the brainchild of Alan Shapiro, founder of SBS Imports: if you miss the Portland event or just can’t get enough, Cider Summit Seattle occurs in September and Cider Summit San Francisco occurs in April.