Only 2 weeks away
I think this may be our first Rose Festival post of the year. I am moblogging, so can’t do a quick search. By my estimation, the Rose Festival opens this Friday with the opening of “Carnie World 2007″ at Waterfront Park (otherwise known as Waterfront Village.) I am not all down on the festival. I think it is great that so many people love it so much. Hey, I marched in it for 4 years in high school.
I digress. The photo to the left is a perfect example of how passionate Portlanders are about the parade. Unless this is for Sunday’s Starlight parade, wow, it is pretty early to be staking out for the following week’s parade. Then again, more power to them. We should start seeing “abandoned” chairs littering the route any time now.
Enjoy!
FWIW, Waterfront Village opens on Thursday.
I intend to go through and rip up some tape before the parade. It wouldn’t be such a big deal except people never clean it up and then it just sits there for months on the eastside. (On the westside, presumably the Clean And Safe people pick it up, but no one does anything on the eastside.)
I wouldn’t care so much if people would just take the time to pick up their litter, but I have a feeling a lot of them don’t live here and rarely come into the city, so they have no incentive. Annnnnoying.
Good point about the tape. Maybe during the parade, walk by a few of the families who had taped out their area, get their names and politely ask them to clean up afterwards. If they don’t, put their names on the internet. Shame them into cleaning up after themselves.
Somebody please fill me in on the unwritten rules of Rose Festival parade etiquette. This whole thing of chaining up chairs and taping out sections is bizarre to me. What happens if you show up, and somebody is in your space? Do they move, or are there confrontations? How long before the parade is it allowed to mark your space? How big can your space be? If you’ve plotted out plenty of elbow room, do you have to shoo off interlopers?
This will be the 17th Rose Festival since I’ve lived here, and I’ve only been to one parade: the Jr. Rose Festival parade several years ago. I had my then 2-y.o. daughter with me, and I couldn’t believe how much grown-ups (without children) were jockeying for front-row viewing spots. You’d think they’d see a sweet little girl, her stroller all decorated with roses, and offer her a spot up front… but no. It was absolutely insane; people were literally pushing and shoving. People were just plain not nice, and it wasn’t worth dealing with them.
Hey, I love a parade as much as the next guy, but these little territorial pissing matches really put me off.
That tape actually showed up in the middle of last week, Dieselboi, and it’s for both parades. Amazing. I’ve never seen someone save a spot this early.
There are a few spots on MLK across from the convention center already taped off as well – so those have to be for the Grand Floral – 2 weeks away…
I just got back from Fiesta Days in my hometown. The entire parade route is chaired-off by 4 pm the day before. I thought *those* guys were nuts. I now stand corrected.
I say we protest the littering of our city: rip up tape when you see it.
If people want good seats, do what reasonable people do and GET THERE EARLY.
The “reservation” of parade spots in this city has for years been a pet peeve of mine.
It’s litter and it completely destroys the spirit of going to the parade. I no longer even attempt to go to the Grand Floral parade because I know that the uptight jerks have “reserved” all of the spots along the sidewalk. When I was a kid, I used to love getting up at the crack of dawn to go get a good seat. Now it’s just hopeless.
I strongly urge the authorities (whoever they might be) to do midnight raids the night before. Donate all the lawn chairs to charity and rip up all the tape. Or we could take matters into our own hands…who’s with me ;) ?
lyza: I am absolutely with you. We don’t need authorities; we’re just removing litter. I can’t possibly see how we’d get in trouble.
And maybe if enough people do it enough years in a row, eventually the masses will realize that trying to tape down a spot is pointless and they’ll stop trying. Maybe.
I am totally ripping up any tape I see. That is B.S. What is this, 3rd grade, saving your seat in the lunchroom? For Todd’s sake, people.
As one of those people who marks my spot a week in advance (I also rip up my own tape), I feel like this is a part of the Rose Festival tradition.My family has had the same spot for the Grand Floral parade for 9 years, and for the Starlight Parade for over 20, because we care enough to go down and save or mark a spot. The children in our family, All 30+ of them take pride when riding down MLK and saying there is our parade spot, and recalling parade memories anytime we ride past that spot. The children know that we have taken the time out to mark the spot and to check every couple of days to make sure that no one has attempted to take “our spot”. They wake up at 5 am and sometimes don’t sleep at all in order to get down to the parade before some rogue comes and attempts to move in. There have been times when rude people come and attempt to move in and sit in front of our children and they are nicely asked to move from in front of children, and then when they reply rudely, they are responded to rudely too. We have had a guy go and tell the police that we wouldn’t let him sit on a public street, and the officer said “hey it’s a tradition, you need to move out of their way.” There have been other times when a person has nicely said “Hey it’s just me and my daughter or grandchildren, would you mind if we squeezed in right here? And they are nicely welcomed into our family, offered a juice box, some string cheese and given access to the bubbles and sidewalk chalk. There have been times when family members did not show up by 8 am and we downsize our area to allow a family from out of town to have a space. A lot of it has to do with traditions and common respect. We can all work together to ensure that all children and adults get to enjoy the parade. There are reserved seating areas near the convention center and coliseum for those who don’t want to participate in the tradition.