Portland (April 23, 2025) — Sorry, Portland. It looks like last year’s bigger-than-ever St. Johns Bizarre wasn’t quite big enough.
Because when our FREE street fair returns for its 16th year on May 10 — unofficially kicking off Portland’s summer festival season — we’re stepping things up one more time with our biggest event yet!
Our craft fair is growing again — to a record 200 local craft vendors, plus food carts and community groups — up from 180 last year. Our footprint is growing again, too, with an expanded street closure that brings in our friends at Two Rivers Books & Weird Sisters Yarn, Havalina, Bees and Beans and Wonderwood Springs, offering even more family-friendly activities and our third and fourth stages for music.
And, in another first, while you’re standing front row at the Plaza Stage, your friend who couldn’t get off work that day can tune in to XRAY.fm and listen live on the go!
Some things, of course, won’t change at all.
The St. Johns Bizarre will still take place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., we’ll be right in the heart of downtown St. Johns (centered around the plaza in N. Lombard and Philadelphia). The music will still be entirely free — with offerings for families and a commitment to diversity that straddles genres from hiphop to electronica to rock to punk to jazz.
And, as always, the Bizarre will wrap around the historic and beloved St. Johns Parade — another Portland favorite that’s roared back to life since the pandemic. Both the Parade and the Bizarre are all-volunteer efforts that serve to showcase the St. Johns community and business district by bringing people from all around the city to dance, shop for art, eat food and more.
This year’s musical lineup: Four stages!
Plaza Stage
Black Belt Eagle Scout, featuring Lori Goldston — 6-7 p.m.
Shabazz Palaces — 5-5:45 p.m.
Federale — 4-4:45 p.m.
Rhododendron — 3-3:45 p.m.
Family Worship Center — 2-2:45 p.m.
DJ Dirtynick (during the St. Johns Parade) — noon-2 p.m.
Family fun showcase:
Ants Ants Ants — 11 a.m.-noon
KCPuppetree — 10:45-11 a.m.
Mr. Ben — 10-10:45 a.m.
Chicago Avenue Stage
Farnell Newton & Tyrone Hendrix Project — 4:30 p.m.
Pete Krebs’ Catnip Brothers — 2 p.m.
John Street Stage
Club Deluxe — 5-6 p.m.
Jakki and the Pink Smudge — 4-4:45 pm
@tlas — 3-3:45 p.m.Twingle — 2-2:45 p.m.
DJ TBA (during the St. Johns Parade) — noon-2 p.m.
Megalith showcase:
William DeLee — 11 a.m.-noon
Patrick McCulley/Grant Pierce Duo — 10-10:45 a.m.
Wonderwood Stage
Mo Phillips — 5 p.m.
Opera on Tap — 3 p.m.
This year, we’re thrilled to announce that the incomparable Black Belt Eagle Scout — led by singer-songwriter Katherine Paul — will headline the Bizarre! The Bizarre marks Paul’s first show in Portland since experiencing serious health issues last summer and taking a hiatus from performing. We’re thrilled to host what promises to be a very special performance as she returns to the Portland stage.
She’ll be joined by a special collaborator, cellist Lori Goldston, an accomplished musician who has toured the world over a 40-year career, released 16 solo and ensemble albums, and shared the stage with many greats — including as a touring member of Nirvana. You can see and hear Goldston during their MTV Unplugged in New York performance.
It’s difficult to do justice to the lush, mesmerizing wonder of Black Belt Eagle Scout, but we really appreciated what She Shreds Magazine had to say:
“If you can imagine all of the best things that the Pacific Northwest has brought us — Mount Eerie, Grunge, Sleater-Kinney, The Girls Rock Camp, and lush mountain ranges — reimagined and told through the perspective of an Indigenous Swinomish and Iñupiaq woman; if you can imagine the magic that would bring to your life then you can imagine Black Belt Eagle Scout.”
They’ll be joined by Northwest hip-hop royalty Shabazz Palaces (Ishmael Reginald Butler, a founder of Digable Planets, in collaboration Tendai “Baba” Maraire), traveling down Interstate 5 from Seattle to bring their visionary power and mixtape sensibility to the Plaza Stage.
Portland-based ensemble Federale (led by longtime Brian Jonestown Massacre bassist Collin Hegna) will also appear, serving up their romantic brand of mid-century “spaghetti western” sauce. Check out Rhododendron, also Portland-based, and their old-school math rock and post-hardcore sounds. And we’ll all gather, appropriately, for Family Worship Center, a 12-piece powerhouse full of horns and strings.
But that’s not all — we’ll have a bevy of other local acts playing all through the day, including rowdy rock three-piece Club Deluxe, the endlessly inventive Jakki and the Pink Smudge, the mellifluously hazy sounds of @tlas, and St. Johns’ very own art-rock stalwarts Twingle.
As part of our expanded offerings this year, our friends at Havalina will host Northwest rock legend Pete Krebs and jazz icon Farnell Newton up on the north end of our street closure.
In addition, local promoters Megalith will kick off the day on our John Street Stage with a special showcase featuring acoustic guitarist William DeLee (listed among Willamette Week’s local artists to watch in 2025) and Patrick McCulley, a saxophonist and composer who pushes the boundaries of his instrument, joined by drummer Grant Pierce.
For more information about the bands, and to hear samples of their music, go to stjohnsbizarre.com.
Partnerships with local businesses help grow our footprint!
This year’s Bizarre will sprawl across parts of 15 blocks in downtown St. Johns — stretching along N. Lombard from N. Charleston all the way to N. Chicago, and then up and down various sidestreets.
With vendors added to N. Alta Street this year, and a new partnership with Two Rivers Books & Weird Sisters Yarn, Havalina, Bees and Beans and Wonderwood Springs, the Bizarre will have more activity and offerings than ever as we spread the love to the north end of our business district.
Our craft fair will now feature a record 200 local vendors selling an impressive array of handmade art and craft items, joining the many eclectic shops who help make downtown St. Johns one of Portland’s largest clusters of independent small businesses.
Many of our vendors are Bizarre institutions themselves, coming back year after year and having some of their best sales days of the year!
And with Mother’s Day literally the very next day, Sunday, May 11, you’ve got no excuse this year if you can’t find the perfect gift for the mothers in your life (or, heck, for yourself, if you’d like)!
Family-friendly entertainment and activities
Come for the music and shopping, but don’t miss out on all the fun activities for kids and families.
Early in the day, local musicians Ants Ants Ants and Mr. Ben (both returning for another year) will hold down the Plaza Stage with their family-friendly songs. Up at Wonderwood Springs, in the afternoon, families can check out the famous Mo Phillips.
Don’t miss nationally recognized puppeteer KCPuppetree, whose “trash” puppets not only delight with wacky characters but also show the power of reusing and recycling materials.
And all throughout the day, St. Johns Swapnplay will bring the vibe that powers their community-minded playspace and sharing ethos to their own little corner of the Bizarre.
Find even more family-friendly options once the party starts May 10.
Drink local beer while watching the bands (but still no single-use plastic!)
The Occidental Beer Garden, just off the Plaza Stage, will be back this year, once again sponsored by St. Johns’ very own Occidental Brewing Co. We’ll also be pouring cider, provided by 45th Parallel, as a delicious gluten-free option, plus non-alcoholic beer from new sponsor Best Day Brewing.
Down the way, StormBreaker Brewing Co. will serve beer and other wares, sponsoring our John Street Stage — back for a third year. Havalina will also host its own “Yovu Beer Garden at Havalina” this year.
As always, the Bizarre will continue to showcase our deep commitment to protecting our planet by once again forgoing the use of single-use plastic cups in the Occidental Beer Garden!
Instead we’ll offer our durable — and highly collectible! — pint cups, emblazoned with beautiful artwork by Anisa Makhoul! This year’s cups — powder-coated steel — come courtesy of a new partnership with Earthwell, which Northwest music fans may recognize from their work with Pickathon.
Anisa’s art will also grace this year’s collectible tote bags and T-shirts (past years’ shirts will be for sale, too!) and a limited run of signed and numbered posters. They’ll all be for sale on Bizarre Day!
The unofficial start of the summer festival season — the St. Johns Bizarre! — is just weeks away, on May 10, 2025. We’re getting ready for another year bringing thousands of Portlanders a dynamite lineup of musicians, artisans, makers, creators, food vendors, community groups, and more.
But we’d love to add you to the team to make this year’s — our 16th — another one for the ages. Volunteer or donate if you can!
Every year, volunteer crews are what make the St. Johns Bizarre possible! The majority of our needs come on event day, but we might also need some assistance before the big day, on Thursday and Friday.
If you’re interested, click the button above to see our Volunteer Page, which includes a signup link that has a detailed list of shifts, times and opportunities.
And, please, if you’re able, we’d also welcome any donations you can spare to help us ensure the Bizarre remains one of the stalwart institutions that makes St. Johns so special!
Thanks, and we can’t wait to see you!
Last year’s St. Johns Bizarre (2024). Photo by Jason Quigley.
Last year’s triumphant return of the St. Johns Bizarre was so sun-soaked and glorious, of course we had to come right back this spring — May 11, 2024 — for our 15th year.
And right now’s the time to sign up and grab a coveted spot as a volunteer! Not only will you put yourself on the front lines of an amazing event, but you’ll also earn the undying admiration of your community (and a free Klean Kanteen cup)!
The majority of our needs will come on event day. But we also need some assistance before the big day on the Thursday and Friday beforehand.
The return of the St. Johns Bizarre is finally here!
Join us in downtown St. Johns from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 11, 2024 — and spend time with our dynamite lineup of musicians, artisans, makers, creators, food vendors, community groups, and more.
The Bizarre comes together right in the charming heart of downtown St. Johns, centered around our neighborhood’s community plaza at N. Philadelphia and N. Lombard — where you’ll also find one of our two music stages (and one of our two beer gardens).
We also close off the surrounding blocks, which we’ll fill with food trucks, artisan booths and more — more than 140 vendors and organizations in all!
Here’s everything you need to know!
Here’s last year’s music lineup and schedule to give you an idea of what we’re all about
Along with our Plaza Stage and Occidental Beer Garden, we’ll also have a second jam-packed stage just two blocks down, at John Street, featuring a second beer garden sponsored by StormBreaker Brewing!
Check out the schedule, and read more about this year’s lineup here.
Check out this map below to see all the places you can shop for handmade arts and crafts, find funky clothing items, rub shoulder with local community organizations, and enjoy delicious food and drinks.
And click here for a full list of this year’s vendors, along with their booth numbers.
Donate and volunteer — there’s still time!
Every year, volunteer crews are what make the St. Johns Bizarre possible! It’s not to late to sign up to help out before Saturday, May 13.
We hope you can find a time and task that suits your availability and interests. And oh, did we mention that all volunteers get a free St. Johns Bizarre Kleen Kanteen stainless steel pint cup? Thanks for helping out at the best neighborhood street festival in Portland!
And, please, if you’re able, we’d also welcome any donations you can spare to help us ensure the Bizarre remains one of the stalwart institutions that makes St. Johns so special!
We’re heartbroken to share that a recent decision by the St. Johns Boosters and PBOT — made without any input from our team — has put the future of the St. Johns Bizarre in jeopardy.
PBOT is currently installing three new light poles in the St. Johns Plaza. One of them falls directly within the footprint of our 20-by-20-foot stage, which has been at the heart of the Bizarre for over 15 years. That stage isn’t just one more configuration detail — it’s essential to the financial and cultural viability of the event.
Why This Matters
The Plaza is the only location large enough to accommodate a stage that attracts national-caliber talent next to a beer garden big enough to help fund a free, community-wide event.
The Bizarre is funded almost entirely through vendor fees and beer sales — both of which rely on that pairing. There is no alternative layout that maintains that scale and revenue model. We worked with a local architect to try to find one — and it just wasn’t possible.
PBOT and the Boosters fast-tracked this project last summer, skipping standard public engagement to meet a grant deadline. Both parties have since acknowledged they failed to consult the largest and longest-standing user of the Plaza — us. By the time we finally learned the details in May, we learned the design had been locked in since last August and construction was imminent. We proposed a concession: move the pole a few feet. It was dismissed.
Insult to Injury
Just as crews were pouring concrete for the poles this week, PBOT published a newsletter celebrating Street Plazas — highlighting a photo of our Plaza Stage, the very stage their design is now making impossible. That image now represents what the Plaza used to support.
This is bigger than the Bizarre. This pole, as currently placed, divides and obstructs a once-open community space, limiting the ways in which the Plaza can be configured and diminishing the scope of future events.
No organization or event — not just the Bizarre — will be able to set up a scene like the one PBOT featured in their newsletter, unless this changes.
A Bitter Outcome After a Banner Year
The Bizarre has seen three straight years of post-COVID growth, thanks to an all-volunteer team deeply invested in St. Johns and our business community. By any metric, our 2025 event was our biggest and best yet. Local businesses told us directly they had record sales — the metric that made us the happiest. But the Bizarre itself also sold more beer and merch than ever. And our expanded footprint allowed us to host more vendors than ever, too.
Last year we were the runner-up for ‘Best Neighborhood Event’ in Willamette Week’s Best of Portland Readers’ Poll — and this year we’re once again in the running to win.
As the Portland Mercury noted this year, “It’s literally impossible to overstate the importance of community and access when talking about music and food — making the St. Johns Bizarre one of Portland’s most important cultural events of the year.”
To lose this momentum — and potentially the event itself — because of a fixable and preventable design oversight is more than frustrating. It’s devastating.
What’s Next?
We are at an inflection point.
PBOT and the Boosters have both suggested we “get creative” and move the stage from our neighborhood’s public gathering space to the middle of a nearby street, but that proposal reduces space for vendors and forces us to shrink or eliminate our beer garden — undermining our entire event model, something we’ve cultivated and built up intentionally over 18 years.
It’s not just a different layout. It’s a different event. And not one we can guarantee will be sustainable.
What You Can Do
We hate that we’re here, at the 11th hour, if not beyond, making this plea. We were forced into this position by the shocking failure to include the Bizarre — the Plaza’s biggest and most visible permit-holder for almost two decades — in community outreach before the plans were made final last summer.
And now we’re asking that the City step in, hear our concerns, correct this mistake, and move or remove the pole before this project moves any further along.
We’re not giving up. If this matters to you, please make your voice heard. Ask City Council to urge PBOT to revise the pole placement now. Go to bit.ly/savethebizarre, and feel free to use the language included below.
Thank you for standing with us and for believing in the power of free, community-built events.
—The St. Johns Bizarre Team
Subject: Urgent: Please Help Preserve the St. Johns Bizarre – Request for PBOT Design Adjustment
I’m writing to express deep concern about changes to St. Johns Plaza that threaten the future of one of our community’s most cherished events.
Without consultation with the St. Johns Bizarre’s organizers — longstanding permit-holders and central contributors to Plaza activation — PBOT and the St. Johns Boosters approved a lighting project that places a pole directly in the footprint of the Bizarre’s main stage.
This single placement could force a dramatic reduction in the event’s footprint and make the event financially unviable. A modest adjustment — just a few feet — could preserve this space without compromising public safety improvements. If only someone had included the Bizarre in time.
Please press PBOT to make things right and move this pole before this project moves further along. A small change now could save an event that brings joy, commerce and vibrancy to St. Johns every year.
Sincerely, [Your Full Name] [Your Address, if desired to confirm residency]
The 16th annual St. Johns Bizarre returns May 10, smashing more records: 200+ vendors, 4 stages of music and new partnerships! It’s our biggest bash yet!
Last Updated: May 5, 2025 by Denis Theriault
Portland (April 23, 2025) — Sorry, Portland. It looks like last year’s bigger-than-ever St. Johns Bizarre wasn’t quite big enough.
Because when our FREE street fair returns for its 16th year on May 10 — unofficially kicking off Portland’s summer festival season — we’re stepping things up one more time with our biggest event yet!
Our craft fair is growing again — to a record 200 local craft vendors, plus food carts and community groups — up from 180 last year. Our footprint is growing again, too, with an expanded street closure that brings in our friends at Two Rivers Books & Weird Sisters Yarn, Havalina, Bees and Beans and Wonderwood Springs, offering even more family-friendly activities and our third and fourth stages for music.
And, in another first, while you’re standing front row at the Plaza Stage, your friend who couldn’t get off work that day can tune in to XRAY.fm and listen live on the go!
Some things, of course, won’t change at all.
The St. Johns Bizarre will still take place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., we’ll be right in the heart of downtown St. Johns (centered around the plaza in N. Lombard and Philadelphia). The music will still be entirely free — with offerings for families and a commitment to diversity that straddles genres from hiphop to electronica to rock to punk to jazz.
And, as always, the Bizarre will wrap around the historic and beloved St. Johns Parade — another Portland favorite that’s roared back to life since the pandemic. Both the Parade and the Bizarre are all-volunteer efforts that serve to showcase the St. Johns community and business district by bringing people from all around the city to dance, shop for art, eat food and more.
This year’s musical lineup: Four stages!
Black Belt Eagle Scout, featuring
Lori Goldston — 6-7 p.m.
Shabazz Palaces — 5-5:45 p.m.
Federale — 4-4:45 p.m.
Rhododendron — 3-3:45 p.m.
Family Worship Center — 2-2:45 p.m.
DJ Dirtynick (during the St. Johns Parade) — noon-2 p.m.
Family fun showcase:
Ants Ants Ants — 11 a.m.-noon
KCPuppetree — 10:45-11 a.m.
Mr. Ben — 10-10:45 a.m.
Chicago Avenue Stage
Farnell Newton & Tyrone Hendrix Project — 4:30 p.m.
Pete Krebs’ Catnip Brothers — 2 p.m.
Club Deluxe — 5-6 p.m.
Jakki and the Pink Smudge — 4-4:45 pm
@tlas — 3-3:45 p.m.Twingle — 2-2:45 p.m.
DJ TBA (during the St. Johns Parade) — noon-2 p.m.
Megalith showcase:
William DeLee — 11 a.m.-noon
Patrick McCulley/Grant Pierce Duo — 10-10:45 a.m.
Wonderwood Stage
Mo Phillips — 5 p.m.
Opera on Tap — 3 p.m.
This year, we’re thrilled to announce that the incomparable Black Belt Eagle Scout — led by singer-songwriter Katherine Paul — will headline the Bizarre! The Bizarre marks Paul’s first show in Portland since experiencing serious health issues last summer and taking a hiatus from performing. We’re thrilled to host what promises to be a very special performance as she returns to the Portland stage.
She’ll be joined by a special collaborator, cellist Lori Goldston, an accomplished musician who has toured the world over a 40-year career, released 16 solo and ensemble albums, and shared the stage with many greats — including as a touring member of Nirvana. You can see and hear Goldston during their MTV Unplugged in New York performance.
It’s difficult to do justice to the lush, mesmerizing wonder of Black Belt Eagle Scout, but we really appreciated what She Shreds Magazine had to say:
“If you can imagine all of the best things that the Pacific Northwest has brought us — Mount Eerie, Grunge, Sleater-Kinney, The Girls Rock Camp, and lush mountain ranges — reimagined and told through the perspective of an Indigenous Swinomish and Iñupiaq woman; if you can imagine the magic that would bring to your life then you can imagine Black Belt Eagle Scout.”
They’ll be joined by Northwest hip-hop royalty Shabazz Palaces (Ishmael Reginald Butler, a founder of Digable Planets, in collaboration Tendai “Baba” Maraire), traveling down Interstate 5 from Seattle to bring their visionary power and mixtape sensibility to the Plaza Stage.
Portland-based ensemble Federale (led by longtime Brian Jonestown Massacre bassist Collin Hegna) will also appear, serving up their romantic brand of mid-century “spaghetti western” sauce. Check out Rhododendron, also Portland-based, and their old-school math rock and post-hardcore sounds. And we’ll all gather, appropriately, for Family Worship Center, a 12-piece powerhouse full of horns and strings.
But that’s not all — we’ll have a bevy of other local acts playing all through the day, including rowdy rock three-piece Club Deluxe, the endlessly inventive Jakki and the Pink Smudge, the mellifluously hazy sounds of @tlas, and St. Johns’ very own art-rock stalwarts Twingle.
As part of our expanded offerings this year, our friends at Havalina will host Northwest rock legend Pete Krebs and jazz icon Farnell Newton up on the north end of our street closure.
In addition, local promoters Megalith will kick off the day on our John Street Stage with a special showcase featuring acoustic guitarist William DeLee (listed among Willamette Week’s local artists to watch in 2025) and Patrick McCulley, a saxophonist and composer who pushes the boundaries of his instrument, joined by drummer Grant Pierce.
For more information about the bands, and to hear samples of their music, go to stjohnsbizarre.com.
Partnerships with local businesses help grow our footprint!
This year’s Bizarre will sprawl across parts of 15 blocks in downtown St. Johns — stretching along N. Lombard from N. Charleston all the way to N. Chicago, and then up and down various sidestreets.
With vendors added to N. Alta Street this year, and a new partnership with Two Rivers Books & Weird Sisters Yarn, Havalina, Bees and Beans and Wonderwood Springs, the Bizarre will have more activity and offerings than ever as we spread the love to the north end of our business district.
Our craft fair will now feature a record 200 local vendors selling an impressive array of handmade art and craft items, joining the many eclectic shops who help make downtown St. Johns one of Portland’s largest clusters of independent small businesses.
Many of our vendors are Bizarre institutions themselves, coming back year after year and having some of their best sales days of the year!
And with Mother’s Day literally the very next day, Sunday, May 11, you’ve got no excuse this year if you can’t find the perfect gift for the mothers in your life (or, heck, for yourself, if you’d like)!
Family-friendly entertainment and activities
Come for the music and shopping, but don’t miss out on all the fun activities for kids and families.
Early in the day, local musicians Ants Ants Ants and Mr. Ben (both returning for another year) will hold down the Plaza Stage with their family-friendly songs. Up at Wonderwood Springs, in the afternoon, families can check out the famous Mo Phillips.
Don’t miss nationally recognized puppeteer KCPuppetree, whose “trash” puppets not only delight with wacky characters but also show the power of reusing and recycling materials.
And all throughout the day, St. Johns Swapnplay will bring the vibe that powers their community-minded playspace and sharing ethos to their own little corner of the Bizarre.
Find even more family-friendly options once the party starts May 10.
Drink local beer while watching the bands (but still no single-use plastic!)
The Occidental Beer Garden, just off the Plaza Stage, will be back this year, once again sponsored by St. Johns’ very own Occidental Brewing Co. We’ll also be pouring cider, provided by 45th Parallel, as a delicious gluten-free option, plus non-alcoholic beer from new sponsor Best Day Brewing.
Down the way, StormBreaker Brewing Co. will serve beer and other wares, sponsoring our John Street Stage — back for a third year. Havalina will also host its own “Yovu Beer Garden at Havalina” this year.
As always, the Bizarre will continue to showcase our deep commitment to protecting our planet by once again forgoing the use of single-use plastic cups in the Occidental Beer Garden!
Instead we’ll offer our durable — and highly collectible! — pint cups, emblazoned with beautiful artwork by Anisa Makhoul! This year’s cups — powder-coated steel — come courtesy of a new partnership with Earthwell, which Northwest music fans may recognize from their work with Pickathon.
Anisa’s art will also grace this year’s collectible tote bags and T-shirts (past years’ shirts will be for sale, too!) and a limited run of signed and numbered posters. They’ll all be for sale on Bizarre Day!
2025 poster designed by Anisa Makhoul | downloadable link here
Band photos, event photos (credit: Jason Quigley): photo download link
Get ready! Here’s how you can volunteer to support the 16th annual St. Johns Bizarre!
Last Updated: April 5, 2025 by Denis Theriault
The unofficial start of the summer festival season — the St. Johns Bizarre! — is just weeks away, on May 10, 2025. We’re getting ready for another year bringing thousands of Portlanders a dynamite lineup of musicians, artisans, makers, creators, food vendors, community groups, and more.
But we’d love to add you to the team to make this year’s — our 16th — another one for the ages. Volunteer or donate if you can!
Every year, volunteer crews are what make the St. Johns Bizarre possible! The majority of our needs come on event day, but we might also need some assistance before the big day, on Thursday and Friday.
If you’re interested, click the button above to see our Volunteer Page, which includes a signup link that has a detailed list of shifts, times and opportunities.
And, please, if you’re able, we’d also welcome any donations you can spare to help us ensure the Bizarre remains one of the stalwart institutions that makes St. Johns so special!
Thanks, and we can’t wait to see you!
It’s almost here! Sign up to volunteer for the 15th annual St. Johns Bizarre on May 11, 2024!
Last Updated: March 30, 2024 by Denis Theriault
Last year’s triumphant return of the St. Johns Bizarre was so sun-soaked and glorious, of course we had to come right back this spring — May 11, 2024 — for our 15th year.
And right now’s the time to sign up and grab a coveted spot as a volunteer! Not only will you put yourself on the front lines of an amazing event, but you’ll also earn the undying admiration of your community (and a free Klean Kanteen cup)!
The majority of our needs will come on event day. But we also need some assistance before the big day on the Thursday and Friday beforehand.
Click on our Volunteer page to learn more.
Return of the St. Johns Bizarre: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 11, 2024! Here’s everything you need to know!
Last Updated: January 19, 2025 by Denis Theriault
The return of the St. Johns Bizarre is finally here!
Join us in downtown St. Johns from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 11, 2024 — and spend time with our dynamite lineup of musicians, artisans, makers, creators, food vendors, community groups, and more.
The Bizarre comes together right in the charming heart of downtown St. Johns, centered around our neighborhood’s community plaza at N. Philadelphia and N. Lombard — where you’ll also find one of our two music stages (and one of our two beer gardens).
We also close off the surrounding blocks, which we’ll fill with food trucks, artisan booths and more — more than 140 vendors and organizations in all!
Here’s everything you need to know!
Here’s last year’s music lineup and schedule to give you an idea of what we’re all about
Along with our Plaza Stage and Occidental Beer Garden, we’ll also have a second jam-packed stage just two blocks down, at John Street, featuring a second beer garden sponsored by StormBreaker Brewing!
Check out the schedule, and read more about this year’s lineup here.
Plaza Stage
(N. Philadelphia between Lombard and Ivanhoe)
John Street Stage
(N. John between Lombard and Kellogg)
This year’s event map and roster of vendors!
Check out this map below to see all the places you can shop for handmade arts and crafts, find funky clothing items, rub shoulder with local community organizations, and enjoy delicious food and drinks.
And click here for a full list of this year’s vendors, along with their booth numbers.
Donate and volunteer — there’s still time!
Every year, volunteer crews are what make the St. Johns Bizarre possible! It’s not to late to sign up to help out before Saturday, May 13.
We hope you can find a time and task that suits your availability and interests. And oh, did we mention that all volunteers get a free St. Johns Bizarre Kleen Kanteen stainless steel pint cup? Thanks for helping out at the best neighborhood street festival in Portland!
And, please, if you’re able, we’d also welcome any donations you can spare to help us ensure the Bizarre remains one of the stalwart institutions that makes St. Johns so special!
Thanks, and we can’t wait to see you!
An Urgent Update on the Future of the St. Johns Bizarre
Posted: June 7, 2025 by Denis Theriault
We’re heartbroken to share that a recent decision by the St. Johns Boosters and PBOT — made without any input from our team — has put the future of the St. Johns Bizarre in jeopardy.
PBOT is currently installing three new light poles in the St. Johns Plaza. One of them falls directly within the footprint of our 20-by-20-foot stage, which has been at the heart of the Bizarre for over 15 years. That stage isn’t just one more configuration detail — it’s essential to the financial and cultural viability of the event.
Why This Matters
The Plaza is the only location large enough to accommodate a stage that attracts national-caliber talent next to a beer garden big enough to help fund a free, community-wide event.
The Bizarre is funded almost entirely through vendor fees and beer sales — both of which rely on that pairing. There is no alternative layout that maintains that scale and revenue model. We worked with a local architect to try to find one — and it just wasn’t possible.
PBOT and the Boosters fast-tracked this project last summer, skipping standard public engagement to meet a grant deadline. Both parties have since acknowledged they failed to consult the largest and longest-standing user of the Plaza — us. By the time we finally learned the details in May, we learned the design had been locked in since last August and construction was imminent. We proposed a concession: move the pole a few feet. It was dismissed.
Insult to Injury
Just as crews were pouring concrete for the poles this week, PBOT published a newsletter celebrating Street Plazas — highlighting a photo of our Plaza Stage, the very stage their design is now making impossible. That image now represents what the Plaza used to support.
This is bigger than the Bizarre. This pole, as currently placed, divides and obstructs a once-open community space, limiting the ways in which the Plaza can be configured and diminishing the scope of future events.
No organization or event — not just the Bizarre — will be able to set up a scene like the one PBOT featured in their newsletter, unless this changes.
A Bitter Outcome After a Banner Year
The Bizarre has seen three straight years of post-COVID growth, thanks to an all-volunteer team deeply invested in St. Johns and our business community. By any metric, our 2025 event was our biggest and best yet. Local businesses told us directly they had record sales — the metric that made us the happiest. But the Bizarre itself also sold more beer and merch than ever. And our expanded footprint allowed us to host more vendors than ever, too.
Last year we were the runner-up for ‘Best Neighborhood Event’ in Willamette Week’s Best of Portland Readers’ Poll — and this year we’re once again in the running to win.
As the Portland Mercury noted this year, “It’s literally impossible to overstate the importance of community and access when talking about music and food — making the St. Johns Bizarre one of Portland’s most important cultural events of the year.”
To lose this momentum — and potentially the event itself — because of a fixable and preventable design oversight is more than frustrating. It’s devastating.
What’s Next?
We are at an inflection point.
PBOT and the Boosters have both suggested we “get creative” and move the stage from our neighborhood’s public gathering space to the middle of a nearby street, but that proposal reduces space for vendors and forces us to shrink or eliminate our beer garden — undermining our entire event model, something we’ve cultivated and built up intentionally over 18 years.
It’s not just a different layout. It’s a different event. And not one we can guarantee will be sustainable.
What You Can Do
We hate that we’re here, at the 11th hour, if not beyond, making this plea. We were forced into this position by the shocking failure to include the Bizarre — the Plaza’s biggest and most visible permit-holder for almost two decades — in community outreach before the plans were made final last summer.
And now we’re asking that the City step in, hear our concerns, correct this mistake, and move or remove the pole before this project moves any further along.
We’re not giving up. If this matters to you, please make your voice heard. Ask City Council to urge PBOT to revise the pole placement now. Go to bit.ly/savethebizarre, and feel free to use the language included below.
Thank you for standing with us and for believing in the power of free, community-built events.
—The St. Johns Bizarre Team
Subject: Urgent: Please Help Preserve the St. Johns Bizarre – Request for PBOT Design Adjustment
I’m writing to express deep concern about changes to St. Johns Plaza that threaten the future of one of our community’s most cherished events.
Without consultation with the St. Johns Bizarre’s organizers — longstanding permit-holders and central contributors to Plaza activation — PBOT and the St. Johns Boosters approved a lighting project that places a pole directly in the footprint of the Bizarre’s main stage.
This single placement could force a dramatic reduction in the event’s footprint and make the event financially unviable. A modest adjustment — just a few feet — could preserve this space without compromising public safety improvements. If only someone had included the Bizarre in time.
Please press PBOT to make things right and move this pole before this project moves further along. A small change now could save an event that brings joy, commerce and vibrancy to St. Johns every year.
Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Address, if desired to confirm residency]