Tonight marks the first installment of new monthly art and music festival Hump Day, conceived as a more vendor-friendly alternative to Last Thursday. Hump Day’s inaugural event will shut down Southeast 9th between Belmont and Taylor from 6-10 pm tonight, making room for 38 vendors, 4 food vendors, and three music areas, according to organizer Michael O’Connor. “Our goal for Hump Day is to maintain a low overhead for independent artists to show and sell their work,” he writes. “By having access to low-cost vending opportunities it can empower our community to engage with entrepreneurship. This festival-like atmosphere can attract thousands of people to a local business district. One day a month, Hump Day will breathe new life into our local economy.”
As a resident of inner Southeast, I was initially concerned that this event might bring an influx of Last Thursday-style drunken tall-bike riders… and then I remembered that I already live in inner Southeast. Carry on.
For more on Hump Day, read the article Sarah wrote a few weeks ago.
If there is one thing that Portland is sorely lacking, it is street festivals.