What To Do in Portland This September

Labor Day weekend is over. Students and teachers are back to school. It can feel a lot like fall 🍁

But here’s your tip for the month: ☀️ There’s still going to be plenty of warm, sunny days — for biking, hiking, and a sunset in the park!

Here’s some ideas for els what to do this month:

Portland Classics

There are a couple of events this month that are classically Portland:

🐉 Dragon Boat Festival

This coming weekend, you can watch the dragon boats race along the Willamette River near Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Bonus: there’ll be a beer garden and food trucks to round out the festivities. Registration for the race has closed, but here’s a chance to be inspired to go into training for next year or just cheer on the racers.

🐦 Vaux’s Swifts

For the uninitiated: You can join the crowds of Portlanders who come to watch a swarm of migrating birds as they swirl into a chimney above Chapman Elementary School. The Bird Alliance of Oregon keeps a count each night, so you can figure out when to go. And stay tuned for a City Cast Portland podcast with the bird experts later this month.

Music and Other Festivals

The season of music and other festivals isn’t over just yet:

🎵 Lose Yr Mind Fest, PDX Pop Now! Festival, and Bridge City Fest

September has become a local music fest month. PDX Pop Now!, this weekend, highlights local talent each year. Lose Yr Mind Fest, starting the 13th, skews toward psychedelic rock. And Bridge City Fest, also starting the 13th, is punk.

🦸 Rose City Comic Con, Geek Week PDX, and Portland Retro Gaming Expo

Portland loves its comic superheroes (and villains), not to mention cosplay. We have an abundance of talented graphic novelists. Rose City Comic Con comes to Portland this weekend. It’ll be followed by Geek Week, a new citywide comic convention. Cosplay ice-skating anyone? Beginning Sept. 27, one of the largest conventions for old-school video and arcade games comes to town.

Plus, nothing tastes more like September to me than fresh grapes, by the bunch. I plan to visit the farmers markets this month to get my fill of the end of summer. Maybe I’ll pick up a bouquet of bright dahlias, too. Join me.