Portland, Oregon: A night of music, roses, and everything good abouttown

The garden in the park

Carol Forsloff--Every year Portland spreads out its skirts, with roses dancing upon the flounces of green that stretch through the town's parks, but even more wonderful is all of that with a night of music that represents every good thing about town.

You can watch and listen and stretch out on the grass with the large crowd that gathers, many families with children, with picnic lunches or a sandwich and soft drink from one of the vendors that serve the festival guests.

The Johnsons, enjoying the concert

Or you can be a first-class observer, and offer an example of how to enjoy the best while bringing the best along with you as one couple did, to the amazement and amusement of many, and those many somewhat envious as well.

Pink roses in gardens of Portland, Oregon

It's summer festival time, and at Washington Park, home of the magnificent International Rose Test Gardens and the Japanese Gardens, one can hear music nearly every night, each evening of a different variety.

Folk band at concert in Portland, Oregon

Folk band[/caption]

Folk music, music of African origin, symphonies and solosits bring their voices and instruments to perform in the warm ambiance of a friendly crowd with the scent of roses everywhere and the view of the city below that brings people to gaze in wonder.

The view at sundown in the Rose Gardens in Portland, Oregon

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But this is something better told in pictures, for it is in them one feels like being there.  So this photo essay brings to you those roses, that stage, the music and the view from the hillside that offers you, the reader, a glimpse of that something special that makes Portland the green capitol as well as the rose city that brings beauty home for everyone.