Feast Portland Is Officially Done

After canceling all of its 2022 events, citywide food festival Feast Portland will not return, co-founder Mike Thelin announced in a letter. Portland Monthly was the first outlet to report the news.

“In an interview with Karen Brooks at Portland Monthly magazine today, I shared the news that our festival would not be returning—not in 2023 and not ever again,” Thelin wrote. “Such a message would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago, but a lot has changed since early 2020—both for our organization, and for the communities with which we are aligned.”

At the height of its powers, Feast Portland attracted as many as 20,000 attendees. Launched in 2012, it was recognized as the largest event in the Northwest devoted to food and drink. But like so many Portland institutions, the festival was hobbled by pandemic restrictions, beginning when it was canceled in 2020 after Gov. Kate Brown extended the ban on large public gatherings through September.

A modified iteration of Feast Portland (billed as “Summer of Feast”) went forward in 2021, but more bad news followed. When all the festival’s 2022 events were canceled last April, it was believed that Feast Portland would rise again at some point, but Thelin now says that’s not an option.

However, Thelin hinted in his letter at “surprises” to come and urged supporters not to unsubscribe from the Feast Portland newsletter, which will continue.

“In 2012, we set out to create a culinary festival that was worthy of the city we loved, valuable to the industry we represented, and relevant in the world of food,” Thelin wrote. “I’m proud to say that Feast succeeded on all counts, and looking back, probably ended when it needed to.”