2009 Portland's Bastille Festival in the Pearl

Jamison Square Park
Saturday, July 11, 2009
12:00 noon - 8:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public

French wine, cuisine, art and sport; Portland Waiters Race, pétanque exhibitions and French music provided by Carol Rossio, Eric John Kaiser and more

The Portland Bastille Day Committee will present the 7th Annual Bastille Day Festival at Jamison Square Park on Saturday, July 11 from 12:00 noon to 8 p.m. The event is free, open to the public and for people of all ages. Bastille Day festivals - held in cities all around the world - celebrate the storming of the Bastille Prison on July 14, 1789, an event which is recognized as the start of the French Revolution. The 2008 event in Portland was among the largest such festivals on the West Coast, with close to 6,000 visitors, and was filmed by PBS for a documentary that was shown nationally on TV. This year's festival will feature a variety of vendors and organizations offering French wine, cuisine, music, art and sport.

Bastille Day in the Pearl events will include:

- The 5th Annual Portland Waiters Race, at 2:00 p.m., featuring speed-walking waiters and waitresses from local area restaurants in a race around Jamison Park - the racers compete on speed and agility in balancing a serving tray. Cash prizes will be awarded to the three top finishers in the women's and men's divisions. The course is three times around the park (approximately one mile).

- Main stage entertainment acts, including Zephyr (French jazz); Carol Rossio (café jazz vocalist); Eric John Kaiser (Portland's French troubadour); Ian Clemens (traditional music from Brittany), and others.

- French-style food and wine - everything from tasty chouquette pastries from St Honoré Boulangerie, croissants from La Provence, merguez sausage sandwiches, pommes frites and other French specialties from Fenouil Restaurant, pastries from Nuvrei, and more.

- The Jardin of Wine and Beer will feature la Metéor beer, extensive wine selections from Georges Duboeuf and even French panaché (a mixture of beer and imported French limonade). And more . . .

- A French-themed market with products from France including linens from the South of France (Les Couleurs de Provence), jewelry, French-inspired Art Deco and Art Nouveau apparel from Octavine Illustration, and products from Versailles in the Pearl. Booths offering information on learning French at a number of Northwest schools and camps, for students of all ages.

- Ongoing pétanque demonstrations and lessons organized by the Portland Pétanque Club.

- Singing of La Marseillaise on the main stage, led by Melanie Downie Zupan. Words provided for public sing-a-long.

- "Le Jardin des Enfants" (Children's Area) - performances for children aged 3 and up, by Fabulations, a local French language performance company, face painting and French-themed crafts for children (all day).

- Partnering events join the celebration: New for 2009, we are coordinating a weeklong celebration of events leading up to the Bastille festival, in partnership with friends of the Alliance. These include the Concours de Tartes aux Fruits (Competition for Portland's best fruit tart) on July 8, a Bastille Dinner featuring French Cuisine on July 9 at Fenouil, a celebration of the Agnès Varda retrospective at NW Film Center on July 10, and the screening of the French film, Le Tango des Rashevksi at Living Room Theaters.

Interested in supporting this event? Click here for a summary of all the ways you can participate, and click here for a donation form.

Bastille Day in the Pearl 2009 is made possible by the support of the volunteer Bastille Day Committee, and sponsors including the Alliance Française, the French-American Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest, Fenouil Restaurant, the French-American International School, Hoyt Realty Group, the Portland French School, WJ Deutsch (Georges Duboeuf) and Normandie Imports.