The Eugene Celebration is our town's "Farewell to Summer Party," and it, like many small-town…read morefestivals, has changed a lot over the years. The official party weekend is scheduled now at the end of August, but before Labor Day, and is a Friday - Sunday affair. Although the festivities used to stretch farther and wider (to Good Times on the north end, and W.O.W. Hall on the west end), nowadays the partiers are confined to the heart of the downtown blocks, with three - five large-ish stages scattered throughout. Saturday morning of the fest is kicked off with my favorite Eugene event, The Celebration Parade! Here you will see so many things, rich and strange, that even the most through-and through south valley-ites have missed! The parade is capped off with the first public venture of our S.L.U.G. Queen (who was crowned some two weeks earlier at an early August pageant). The parade is free but to get "in," one must purchase a pass. These are $15 for the whole weekend, $8 for Sundays, and some unknown amount for singleton admit on the other days. The music scene is pretty tight for our little town. I've seen the Cherry Poppin' Daddies (of course), Fishbone, They Might be Giants, Blitzen Trapper, Lyrics Born, Misty River, Pinback... All with little to no crowds. The music has stayed strong over the years, but what is waning is all of the local color inside the festival gates. There used to be so many ... oddities... throughout the festival gates, and that is what I really miss. Even the firedancers were absent this year! -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78m7O7UOQw I'm still a fan though. I mean, what other small town do you know of that puts on a festival so uniquely its own? It's supported entirely off of donations and volunteers and has been getting us to party since 1983! Locals, let's get downtown next year!

I'm giving it three stars for years past…read more This year 1 star. For some reason, there were no Market Place vendors. I have come to Eugene Celebration for maybe three years and I loved the little shops. The shops were a great place to by local gifts and wares. They had plenty of massage, kids, and local exhibitor booths. My friends and I decided to go to the Saturday Marketplace for a few shops, which was nice. The Saturday of the Eugene Celebration is usually busy, but it was dead. I felt bad for the other patrons. I was disappointed. The music we witnessed was okay. Beers were delish. Oakshire, Hop Valley, Ninkasi. Also, they usually have a DISCO BALL cart at night and that was not there, either. Food had some good options. My friend loved her: Cart De Frisco. An old college treat - she claims. Love the Celebration normally, but this year was a bust.

Though it doesn't attract the big international crowd like the Bach Festival, the OFAM, held…read moreannually in August, is probably my favorite music festival in Eugene. Every year they pick a theme, generally related to the American Songbook, with lots of Jazz. They then organize performances by different bands, orchestras and singers at the Shedd. My favorite years wee Cole Port, Irving Berlin, and this year's Hooray for Hollywood! with performances from Casablanca and The Music Man.

First off, the entry line at gate D was chaos. One line became 3 lines, became 4 lines, etc. And…read morethere was no one there to regain order! We had to get real aggressive trying to maintain our position. We were about 6th in line but ended up being about 20th to reach the ticket booth. Once we got to the ticket booth, the elderly woman became confused, trying to operate the laptop used to issue tickets. We had to wait about 5 minutes until a young man arrived and helped her. Keep in mind, behind us, were hundreds of people waiting to purchase tickets. Chaos, at best. Once inside, we had a great time. It was "Senior Day". We stayed all day, deciding to stay until the 7:30 stage entertainment. To our surprise, we discovered it was a hip hop artist named CHINGY. Hip hop on senior day? Who's the genius who planned that one? My girlfriend, my mother, and I decided to give Chingy a try. For some reason, we assumed the show was included in the Fair entry price. Nope. The crew working at the gate told me that ticket prices ranged from 30 to 50 dollars! I couldn't help but laugh. Then, one of the crew approached, lowered his voice, and said, "You may wanna check with that booth over there, and see if you can get a better price." He was pointing to a radio station booth (Don't remember what station it was). So we walked over as the man running the booth walked towards us. He said, "I noticed that gentleman pointing towards me. And no, I don't have any free tickets." I told him we weren't necessarily looking for free tickets. He paused, then asked if it were just the 3 of us. I said yes. He them reached into his pocket and pulled out a large stack of tickets, peeled off 3 of them, and handed them to me, saying, "Enjoy the show." Each ticket said Reserved Seating, $45.00. So we entered the show grounds. We watched the entire 45-minute show, relieved that we hadn't paid for it. Not only was it short, but it was not good. Chingy rapped/sang for about 15 minutes, then invited 6 random people onstage for a dance competition. A half hour later, it was all over. I might add, most of the seats were empty. All in all, it was a fun day at the Fair.

I've gone to the fair for at least 10 years in a row Lane county fair what a great idea right well…read morethis year 2024 has become so ridiculously expensive it is depressing we paid the Door fee of $10 each to get in that's fine but once we got in, we found that Drinks were $16 each basket of fries $16 a plate of Hawaiian chicken noodles $16. everything is $15-$16 to eat there or to do there tickets are 13 tickets 15 to 20 tickets per ride do the math that's absolutely ridiculous Lane county you need to do something about this. This is unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable depressing our family paid $40 to get into the park And we were there we walked around and Absolute depression going from boot booth trying to see if there's something we could buy that was somewhat affordable not at all. Absolutely horribly disgusting as far as pricing sad sad event.

What happened to the street fair? It used to be all local vendors making ethnic foods, generally…read morethe same stands you find at the Saturday Market. This year I returned for the first time in three years, and found it transformed into something decidedly carnivalesque. Elephant ears and funnel cakes?? Huh?? Happy to see Red Wagon Creamery there though. Love them! And I can never resist a caramel apple from Larson's.

Every Fall and Spring Terms, the Associated Students of the University of Oregon sponsor a 3 day…read morestreet faire. The East 13th thoroughfare across campus is lined with an assortment of local non-profit info booths, vendors peddling their wares including candles, jewelry, clothing, accessories, posters, tapestries, and street foods. Prices are high, quality is, on average, less than stellar, with a couple of exceptions and gems hidden amongst the goods that seem to have been cloned in 2003 and keep spitting out the same products to offer year after year. The food options are diverse but not terribly exciting or worth the price. Very few vendors offer local or better-than-Sysco ingredients. With the exception of Red Wagon Creamery, and J Tea, I'd rather bring a lunch than waste my cash on unmemorable pad thai, fried rice, vegan and regular philly cheesesteaks, BBQ, funnel cakes, kettle corn, spring rolls, fried plantains, smoothies, snow cones, and the like.