Weekend Guide: Smile Boat Parade, Hawthorne Street Fair, and More Around Portland

This weekend brings a solid lineup of things to do for anyone in the metro suburbs willing to make the short drive into Portland.

Saturday, August 22 brings the Smile Boat Parade at North Portland Harbor starting at 11 a.m. — a lighthearted, low-key celebration on the water that's become a favorite for families looking for something a little different than the usual festival crowd.

Also running Saturday is the MADE Bike Show, a multi-day trade and consumer show at Zidell Yards in South Waterfront, spanning Friday through Sunday (August 21–23). It's a chance to see handmade, one-of-a-kind bikes and new products from builders who don't usually show up at a typical big-box bike shop — worth a look for anyone into cycling as a craft rather than just a commute.

Sunday, August 23 is the big one: the 43rd annual Hawthorne Street Fair, Portland's longest-running street fair, takes over Hawthorne Boulevard from SE Cesar Chavez to SE 30th Avenue from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The street goes car-free for the day, with more than 200 vendors, live music, and food filling the boulevard — reliably one of the busiest single-day events in the city each summer.

Between the three, it's a weekend that rewards picking one or two rather than trying to do everything — the Hawthorne fair alone can easily fill an afternoon on its own. For families coming from Beaverton, Gresham, Lake Oswego, West Linn, or Clackamas, parking near Hawthorne fills up fast, so taking TriMet in for the street fair is worth considering over driving.