Although I missed last year’s Oregon Brewers Festival for the first time in many years, it felt like it had been at least five years since I’d been back. That’s how much I missed Portland, and I was thrilled to be there again. After the Brewer’s Dinner Wednesday night, I attended the brunch, this year held at McMenamin’s Crystal Ballroom, and helped setup for the event beforehand, as well. After everyone feasted and prepared their stomachs for the day’s drinking, what looked to be close to 1200 people lined up for the parade. That’s just a guess, but it was easily the biggest crowd I’d seen for the parade, and this was my third time, of the five so far. Many of the usual suspects were there, the band, the Rogue Friars, people in kilts, people wearing literal hopheads, etc. This year’s Grand Marshall was Portland legend Fred Eckhardt who led the parade via pedicab down to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park, the annual home of the beer festival. Here are some photos from the parade. Enjoy.
Pedicab leading the OBF Parade with Grand Marshall Fred Eckhardt and OBF founder Art Larrance.
Here we come.
… walking down the street,
We get the funniest looks from …
Everyone we meet.
After arriving at the festival grounds, it was time to tap the keg and officially start the festival. Look for the ceremonies coming soon in part 2.
Jay, I missed my chance to meet you. I had to be standing about ten feet from you in the “walking down the street” picture–I have it from an angle on Fred’s side of the pedicab. Ah well.
Shit, that’s a bummer. I had hoped we’d have a chance to meet in person finally. I thought perhaps we’d both be at the media tasting, but alas … Next year?
Definitely.
Since about 1991/2 I’ve been going to the fest with friends on the first day–which coincided with the media tasting. I figured I could do as good a job as Noel in navigating the waters. (Okay, nobody does anything as well as Noel.) Next year I’ll pop in at the very least to say hi and see who all is there. Looks like you guys had a lot of fun.