About
Pedalpalooza is an annual festival in Metro Portland, Oregon. During the festival, there are hundreds of volunteer-organized free events open to the general public. Each year there are well over 10,000 participants in these events, which are almost entirely on bikes and free. There are some annual flagship rides which usually have over 1000 riders, and many first-time ever rides - some of which will have only 1 or 2 riders. They’re all fun!
Pedalpalooza 2020 starts on the first of June and ends on the 5th of July — over a full month of bike fun!
This year will be something different! Pedalpalooza 2020 is about individuals finding ways to celebrate the joy of cycling. Check the Pedalpalooza calendar for details.
History
The tradition of a summer bike fun festival in Portland started in Summer of 2002, when the nomadic BikeSummer festival came to Portland. We had so much fun that we decided we should keep having bike fun festivals and went through a couple of iterations - including Mini Bike Summer in 2003 before Pedalpalooza was dreamed up in 2004. It’s happened every year since then, and grown quite a bit!
Flagship rides
- The kickoff ride — The first major ride of Pedalpalooza, on day 1 of the festival. It’s traditionally led by a variety of community members. It’s always family friendly, usually having a slow pace with a route on major city streets. For the past several years, it’s also been the main venue for passing out Pedalpalooza pennants which folks attach to their bikes for the duration of the festival so you can “follow the flag to fun!”
- The local version of The World Naked Bike Ride — Usually the largest organized point-to-point bike ride in the state! Has a well-planned route, infrastructure like portapotties and security staff, and around 10,000 participants). See the PDX WNBR website for more details. The 2020 ride will be on June 27th.
- Loud and Lit — A loud, bright, dance party ride, usually featuring well over 1,000 participants.
- Sunday Parkways — The Portland Bureau of Transportation runs a series of events on Sundays during the summer during which a loop of streets in various neighborhoods is closed to car traffic, so people can walk and bike and use other human-powered transport to enjoy the streets together. The 2020 June Sunday Parkways will be on June 28th in North Portland.
Past Festivals
Check out the archives of previous years for hundreds of bike fun events from years past.