At the Festa Italiana, held from August 26th to 28th at Pioneer Square, you can stomp grapes to make wine, enjoy music and dance performances, and eats a lot of Italian food! And admission to the festival is FREE!
Beginning Thursday, there will be live musicians and dance performers on stage every hour. A dozen different Italian shops and restaurants will have booths at Pioneer Square, serving everything from anti pasta to Italian breads and gelato!
Ciao!
Want to experience a wonderful mix of cultures right here in Oregon? Then you need to attend the Glendi Festival! Held on Saturday and Sunday, August 20th & 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., this festival brings together Greek, Middle Eastern, Russian and Ethiopian cultures together under one tent. There, you can taste food and drink from these cultures and nations, enjoy live music and dance, as well as learn about customs and traditions unique to those countries and people.
Admission to the festival is FREE to attend the festival. Once there, you may buy $1 tokens to use to taste the food and drinks (you can get a refund for any unused tokens).
Click here to see the location of and directions to the Glendi Festival is held. You can also see a schedule of events here.
For the 20th year in a row, Pioneer Courthouse Square will host the ever popular Noon Tunes Concert Series that will entertain crowds of thousands every Tuesday and Thursday from Noon-1:00pm.
The festival runs through July and August and is completely free!
The Noon Tunes Concert Series showcases the best in regional and local musical talent. If you get there early, you can enjoy a FREE bottle of organic Honest Tea at the concert!
Now go and enjoy some live music!
This Saturday, June 12th, PELA students are invited to participate in the annual Kids Free Fishing Day at Hagg Lake. Every year, hundreds of foster children enjoy a day fishing at the lake, with volunteers providing breakfast and lunch, along with fishing poles, tackle and bait.
This PELA Volunteer Event is a great opportunity for our students to interact with local children and adults in a fun-filled setting, getting to use their English in the real world as well as learn a little bit about American culture.
Foster children are kids who have been placed (by the government) in the homes of someone other than their parents–usually because the parents are unable to care for the children or the children were mistreated by their parents.
In the United States, there are many volunteer organizations which help needy children and families, and every year PELA works with several of these groups to bring happiness and love into the lives of people of all ages.
Portland is a great place for local artists of all kinds–painters, actors, musicians–and on the last Thursday of each month, Alberta Street in Northeast Portland closes to cars and opens its sidewalks to Last Thursday!
At Last Thursday, you can unusual street musicians, fire-dancers, acrobatic shows, and parades of colorfully decorated bicycles. Artists show their artwork on the sidewalk, and there are many art galleries along Alberta, too. You can also taste many different kinds of foods on Alberta at the many restaurants and sidewalk food carts, so Portlanders can spend the entire evening walking down Alberta. So come to Portland and see a unique part of American culture!
This weekend is Americans celebrate Memorial Day, a holiday honoring men and women who have died fighting for the U.S.
Because it is a 3-day weekend, many Portlanders head out of town on vacation or stay in town and enjoy the beginning of the Portland Rose Festival! The Portland Rose Festival is a 2-week long festival with parades, parties, races and performances throughout the city. Starting this week, several of PELA’s Volunteer students will be helping create floats for the Rose Festival Parade.
Also this weekend, more than 140 wineries are open to the public during Memorial Weekend in the Wine Country, west of Portland. Many of these wineries are not open at any other time during the year. Festivities include tasting of new releases and older vintages, barrel tastings, specialty foods and sales of limited quantity wines. Some wineries have live music and some charge a tasting fee.
Come to the PELA office and get your Free Ticket to AsiaFest, a celebration of the diversity of Asian cultures in Portland. Portland’s AsiaFest offers the opportunity to see a show, listen to music, and experience the craftsmanship and creativity of a variety of Asian cultures, including Indian, Hmong, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, Lao, Chinese, Cambodian, and Japanese. The event will also feature cuisine from many local Asian restaurants, a silent auction, and more.
Asia Fest is on May 15th from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., at the Oregon Convention Center (Red or Blue Max line to the “Convention Center” stop).
On May 8th, the Bison Building hosts the 6th annual Portland Indie Wine Festival, a delicious experience where you can taste the Northwest’s top 40 artisinal wineries. Unlike most other wineries in Oregon, which have ”tasting rooms” where you can try their wines, the wines at the Indie Wine Festival can only be tasted in local restaurants and bars.
Later this month, during the 2010 Memorial Weekend in the Wine Country, over a hundred other wineries open their doors to public for three days! Many of these wineries are not open at any other time during the year. At these wineries, you can meet winemakers, and taste their wines, drink wine right out of the barrel, try local cheeses and appetizers, and take advantage of special discount sales on some wines. Some wineries have live music and some charge a tasting fee.
Beginning tomorrow, PELA students will be heading down to Waterfront Park to participate in Portland’s annual Cinco de Mayo Festival. Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican-American holiday, begun in 1967 by Americans of Mexican ancestry, celebrating the culture of Mexico. Over 300,000 people come to this 5-day festival in Portland each year to enjoy Mexican food, music and culture.
From now until the end of summer, Portlanders will be able to go to various food, drink and cultural festivals every weekend in and around downtown Portland.
If you’re new to Portland or just visiting, you’ll notice that there’s something missing from the Oregon shopping experience: Sales Tax.
That means when you’re out shopping, dining, even buying groceries, you’ll pay the price of what you’re buying with NOTHING (except for tips at restaurants) added. It’s wonderful!
Oregon is one of only 4 state with no Sales Tax. If you were to travel to other states like California, Florida or New York, you will pay from 3% to 7% for almost anything you buy.
The no-sales-tax rule in Oregon also applies to shopping online , as long as you ship to an Oregon address.
Our students tell us that the cheaper prices in Oregon was one reason they enjoy living here so much. Combine that with the many Outlet Malls around Portland, and you when you live here you are living in a a “Shopping Paradise”!
