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It was cute, but also pretty silly and rinky dink. It was at Oaks Amusement Park down in Sellwood and I really need to go there another day, just not for the rides. It's an old amusement park and roller skating rink that's been there for ages. Both the the amusement park and the roller rink were used in Leverage episodes. It's way down in Sellwood because it's the terminus of one of the old street car lines. Much of why Portland is the way it is, is because we were designed around street cars and horses not cars. That's why the old theaters, music venues, etc are all away from downtown and on the Eastside walking streets. The street car companies sponsored a lot of stuff so people would have a reason to ride the street cars on weekends, not just for commuting. That's also why a lot of stuff survived, or the buildings survived and got repurposed instead of torn down. Anyway, Oaks Park is interesting because it's very much a product of our old infrastructure system.
There's one of those little trains that goes around the park and by the waterfront, except that from the way the trees grew back in you can't actually see the water anymore. It's just a lot of stuff like that. But, being on the train, of course I went on the train, I did spot the view that made me glad I brought my camera, the Portland Mausoleum through a roller coaster:
The outside of the mausoleum is painted in that bird mural to not look creepy. The mausoleum is built into the side of a cliff, below it is the Oak's Bottom wetlands and wilderness area and then is the amusement park. That's a cell phone grab, I'll need to check to see if my actual camera got a better shot or not.
Anyway, yeah, the fest. Bigfoot hugged me! The hands on demo of ghost hunting gear never actually happened. A lot of the vendors were very bottom-barrel. There is this design for a 3D printed dragon that has a jointed back so it can sit nicely on your shoulder. I first saw pic of that design a few months ago. No joke, 12 different vendors were all selling it, all used the same print file. A LOT of the art was stuff they found online, many were selling the same damn stickers. One booth was just piles and piles of what was obviously AI art.
But, there was cool stuff like the booth for the movie Slash Squatch and the guy wandering around in a really good Bigfoot costume with facial prosthetics. It wasn't a mask, he could talk and smile and everything. Some people were just happy to be at a Bigfoot Fest, I was.
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Date: 2024-06-30 08:01 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2024-06-30 09:26 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2024-07-03 04:34 am (UTC)From:The amusement park sounds like Lakeside here. (Down to having a little train that goes around the water.) But kinda run-down, lots of cool vintage rides, but some non-operational until repairs are completed...
It sounds fun, even if it was a bit silly. (A bit annoying when all the vendors have basically just the same stuff that they themselves did not originate, but ah well.) I'm glad it was a good time!