How the Starlight Parade will impact traffic in downtown Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — One of the Portland Rose Festival’s most cherished traditions, the Starlight Parade, is returning to downtown Saturday evening.

The annual event features marching bands and over 100 illuminated entries. This year, they’ll all led by one of the city’s most iconic mascots, Dillon

T. Pickle of Portland’s West Coast League baseball team, the Portland Pickles.

The parade begins on Southwest Naito Parkway near the Morrison Bridge and ends at Lincoln High School on Southwest Salmon Street.

Although the parade begins at 8:15 p.m., street closures will take effect at 1:30 p.m. along Naito Parkway between Southwest Jefferson and Northwest Davis Street.

The stretch along Southwest 4th Avenue from West Burnside to Southwest Salmon will also close by 4:30 p.m. until the parade’s scheduled end at 10:15 p.m.

TriMet has also cautioned that between 3:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., downtown service on lines 15, 16, 20, 63 will be affected. Temporary stops and detours will be available during that time.

Additional information on street closures can be found here.

Organizers highly encourage using public transportation to get to the parade. Further, they say anyone planning to park in nearby lots should arrive early ahead of the street closures.

For more information about the CareOregon Starlight Parade, visit rosefestival.org.