Downtown Portland welcomes the Grand Floral Parade’s return

The Rose Festival’s Grand Floral Parade may be more than a century old,

but it’s still embracing change

Saturday morning, it wound through downtown Portland, returning to the city’s core after a three-year, post-pandemic hiatus that kept the annual parade east of the Willamette River.

The

new route

wove past landmarks such as Pioneer Courthouse Square, beginning at Tom McCall Waterfront Park and ending at Providence Park.

Celebrating under the theme of “All Together Now!,” the parade featured floats big and small, marching bands, horses, drill teams, vintage vehicles, dancers, llamas and

Queen of Rosaria Ava Rathi

, a 2025 graduate of Lincoln High School.

Also during the parade,

one couple got married

. The ceremony took place near Salmon Street Springs and was broadcast live by Portland’s Fox 12 along with the rest of the parade.

And, of course,

this year’s grand marshal is Tula-Tu

, the baby elephant born at the Oregon Zoo in February. (Spoiler alert: Tula-Tu didn’t actually march in the parade; instead sponsor Alaska Airlines honored the precious pachyderm on its float.)

“Tula-Tu may be small now,” Oregon Zoo Director Heidi Rahn told reporters last month, “but she represents something incredibly big: Hope, connection, and the future of wildlife conservation.”

Streets through the downtown core, and west toward Goose Hollow, closed as early as 7 a.m. Saturday to accommodate parade spectators.

Anyone who missed the parade has a second chance to see the floats up close. They’ll be lined up along Southwest Naito Parkway on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, adjacent to the Rose Festival CityFair. And there’s no cost to see them.

For more information, visit

https://www.rosefestival.org

—Kimberly Cortez covers breaking news, public safety and more for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached at

kcortez@oregonian.com

.

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