Good in the Hood returns to Rose Festival’s Grand Floral Parade — and with own festival in June

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, May 28, 2025

The Rose Festival has worked hard to build relationships with Portland-area communities, businesses and other events.

Right there at the top of the list has been Good in the Hood, an annual festival for North and Northeast Portland.

And, here’s the good news: Good in the Hood returns to the Grand Floral Parade and with a festival itself, after being on hiatus last year.

Good in the Hood will be represented with a mini-float, in a year where Rose City Float Designs, run by Carla and Gary Stenberg, celebrate 10 years of building Rose Festival mini-floats.

The Good in the Hood float will be “music-themed” with music symbols all over it and “Back in Stride Again” (by Frankie Beverly) playing, said Quisha Light, Good in the Hood board president, who’ll be riding on the float. Angela Harris, a 25-year veteran of the festival, will be driving. Festival workers and fans will be walking alongside the float.

The song fits the moment, as Good in the Hood makes its return.

“We took a year off, and we’re coming back,” Light said. “We decided to take a break; the main folks who had been doing a lot for the organization experienced some health issues and needed to get more people involved in the planning side and to rebuild the board. We took time to rebuild and think about what we need to do.

“We’re really excited. We have several sponsors, about 23 of them. It’s amazing.”

The University of Oregon is the presenting sponsor.

The annual Good in the Hood Multicultural Festival, June 28-29, returns to a new festival site, Lillis-Albina Park, and the celebration of North-Northeast Portland includes live music, vendors, family fun activities and more.

“We call it a big family reunion in Portland,” Light said. Good in the Hood has attracted about 5,000 people in the past.