Is Portland weird again? ‘Old Baby Pageant’ has city back in its Portlandia era

Remember the Portland of 2015? It was the golden age of weird events, the height of the “Keep Portland Weird” era. “Portlandia” was in its fifth season” and you couldn’t go anywhere without people putting birds on things.

The people of Portland were weird, wild and free. You never knew what weird happening you would stumble upon.

This summer has felt like something of a throwback. Portlanders created a casual parallel parking competition that got headlines around the world. There are not one but two World Naked Bike Rides. And, next month, a Portland brewery will host its inaugural Old Baby Pageant, which is exactly as weird as you think it is.

As first reported by Willamette Week, the contest, hosted by Old Town Brewing on Aug. 11, will feature contestants who are trying to “embody the spirt of Old Baby,” who is a mascot featured on the label of the brewery’s collaboration beer with Baby Doll Pizza. Old Baby is a round-bellied, baby-faced brewer with a large beard and tattoos — perhaps not unlike many Portlanders.

The brewery has not exactly defined “the spirit” of Old Baby but said contestants will “bring ASTOUNDING TALENTS to the stage, PRANCE about in extravagant costumes and SEDUCE the panel of esteemed local celebrity judges.”

Old Town Brewing sales director Tom Field told Willamette Week that the event is not just weird for the sake of being weird, it’s an attempt to bring the community together. “I think it’s important for people to go out and do things in public — that’s how you meet new people,” Field said.

It’s exactly the kind of offbeat, community-centric DIY event that proliferated in the city a decade ago.

For those who don’t remember, 2015 was the epitome of weird Portland. It was the year the Freakybuttrue Pecularium hosted its one-off 109th Annual Staring Contest. This was back when the wonder cabinet festival and CthuluCon were still going strong. It was the year of Cuddle Con and the Geek Olympathon. Yes, there was the rat show and Tuba Christmas and the Adult Soap Box Derby, not to mention the World Naked Bike Ride, but by that point all those events had become part of the city’s cultural landscape.

Driving the spectacle of 2015 was a wide array of people who were just out there having fun, coming together to spread joy and whimsy across the city.

You might well have run into the Portland Beardsmen, fresh out of the spotlight of the World Beard and Mustache Championships, who donned tutus to drive around the city delivering Mother’s Day flowers. Then there was the union of the prepper and LARPing communities, who helped create an educational Zombie Apocalypse Disaster Preparedness Game that took over the streets of Southeast Portland. A group of artists came together to celebrate and mourn the old PDX carpet, which was being ripped out of the airport.

Portland was vibing, as they say. There was, of course, a taxidermy art class, where people were taught to stuff rats and put them in little costumes, and one student was, of course, dressed in an enormous rat costume. In 2015, there was really no arguing the “weird” label in Portland.

But things changed. In 2016, after Donald Trump was first elected president, Portland began a new protest era, one marked not by protesters flying colorful banners off the St. Johns bridge, but by violent clashes in the streets. (The Cascadia Clown Army, which in 2013 promised to bring humor to the front lines of Portland protests, was nowhere to be seen.)

After making it through a harrowing start to the 2020s, which saw citywide COVID-19 lockdowns and closures, not to mention even more protests and a variety of socioeconomic woes, Portland seems to be reentering a brighter, more whimsical state of being in 2025.

Just look at the witchy frozen custard shop with a coffee shop behind a secret door, or the summer bike ride where everybody dresses up like the musician Pitbull, or any of the wacky goings-on at the nearly shuttered Lloyd Center mall, which is now home to a lightsaber battling space and a weekly ‘80s-themed mall walking event.

While the Old Baby Pageant feels very 2015, it also feels very at home in 2025. Is Portland weird… again? Maybe the parade of Old Babies can let us know.

The Old Baby Pageant will take place 7-10 p.m. Monday, Aug. 11, at Alberta Abbey, 126 N.E. Alberta St. Tickets are $17.86 per person, available online, 21 and older only.