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To some Portlanders, the streets of downtown might seem eerily quiet the first Saturday morning in June this year.
Normally—as in, nearly every year since 1907—that is when the Grand Floral Parade winds through the streets with its flower-covered floats, marching bands, and Rose Festival princesses. As announced at a press conference last week, the Grand Floral Parade is merging this year with the Starlight Parade for the first time.
The mega-event will begin at 6:30 pm Saturday, June 6. Instead of the 85 entries in a typical Rose Festival parade, the CareOregon Grand Floral Starlight Parade will have about 125. It will follow the same downtown route as last year.
The change is a cost-saving effort by the Portland Rose Festival Foundation. The savings come from only having to pay the fixed costs of a downtown parade once rather than twice, including things like city fees and rent for fencing and porta-potties.
The Portland Rose Festival has been struggling financially since 2020 (“Grand Finale?” WW, June 3, 2025). It lost about $610,000 in 2023 and $1.1 million in 2024. The foundation whittled that deficit down to about $350,000 in 2025, according to Jeremy Emerson, president of the board of directors.
While there are even more changes to the 2026 Rose Festival schedule—the Fred Meyer Junior Parade is moving to the weekend and there will be an extra fireworks show—WW’s conversation with Emerson focused mainly on the changes to the signature parades, the financial health of the Portland Rose Festival, and why this change needed to happen now.
WW: Two days ago, you announced a huge change for the Rose Festival. What feedback are you hearing from people so far?
Jeremy Emerson: The feedback we’re hearing is generally positive. The feedback we’re reading, maybe not as much.
What I’m hearing is excitement and support from many of our longtime supporters—who, without having done something like this, we might not have ever known that people were looking for something new and exciting. You never know how this kind of thing is going to go, but it has generally been very positive. I’m very surprised and excited about that.
OK, so what have you been reading?
Well, I try to stay out of the comment sections of just about every piece of social media or news because I just don’t love the energy that floats around down there. Those things are always disheartening. But we just kind of try and focus on the positive nature of our mission, what we’re doing. In general, I think most people are really looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
Can you tell me a little bit about how that night will go for parade viewers?
I think the thing for people to understand is that it isn’t two completely separate parades. I think people get a little confused by that, because that’s what they have been. But it is a singular parade that kind of has two parts to it.
If you’re the kind of person that absolutely loves the tradition and the color and the organic nature of the Grand Floral floats and you want to see that stuff, get out there early. Maybe sit at the front half of the parade route. If you’re the kind of person who loves the nighttime sparkle, the later in the route you sit, the darker it will be when the parade gets to you, so you can enjoy the illuminated portion of the program.
Is consolidating parades a change that has needed to happen for a while?
I would say it’s a change that has been discussed for a while. And as we started doing the planning this year, it was really clear to us that not only was this going to save some money, which is very important to our organization right now, but it’s also equally important to be thinking about how we can reinvigorate some energy into the programming to get the people to come back out and see what’s going on. Because the exact same thing happening for 50 or 100 years is just the same thing over and over again.
What is the cost savings?
Last year we got close to a $350,000 deficit. This year, knowing we only have one parade, and maximizing everything around that, we should be at half or less than that.
About the Junior Parade, is there a cost savings to moving that event from its traditional Wednesday slot to a Saturday (May 30)?
The Junior Parade is not nearly the size of investment as a downtown parade. It’s a much smaller parade route. There’s a lot less overhead. It’s mostly just an event that we can produce that gets a ton of people out. The spirit of that parade is much more community-driven than the high production value of Starlight and Grand Floral.
To me, it has been a dream to move that parade or get the schools to let out early like they used to 50 years ago. But since we know that cannot happen and will not happen, we’ve been talking about what that parade would look like if we were to move it. We thought what would be so fantastic is, obviously, a Saturday for families. I can now plan my family’s day around that event and go take part in it completely, in full.
Is there anything else you want to clear up for readers?
People should understand that this is such a passion-driven thing. It’s hard to describe how much passion exists on the board—some people have been on the board for over 40 years, and some of us are relatively new. And when we have these conversations, none of it’s easy. But these decisions are being made very thoughtfully.
