Welcome to Portland, Oregon

Music & Arts & Events

Seattle's Nada Personal, a Soda Stereo tribute band

Music

Another huge mark in the PLUS column, Portland boasts a phenomenal music scene, along with plenty of arts, theater, and public performances. The opportunities to see original live music are many.

“[The Portland] metro area’s population may rank only 25th in the U.S., but it claims at least 1,100 music businesses, around 2,000 performing acts, nearly 300 live venues and 200-plus promoted concerts a week — putting it near the top of any of these categories on a per-capita basis.”
— Oregon Business Magazine

Every night of the week there is music, everything from experimental noise to bluegrass, string quartet to hip hop.

There are numerous open mics, and a monthly event dedicated to showcasing new singer-songwriters, the Songwriter Soirée.

The brilliant NearHear website and app (iOS only) provide a dead simple means of previewing artists' music and finding local shows.

PDX Presents offers live concert photography, music playlists, artist and venue features, and information about the explosive Portland Music Scene.

Music makers

If you make music in any capacity, your first stop should be Music Portland, an advocacy group for musicians and the ecosystem (venues, instrument vendors, etc.) that supports them.

If you compose music (just about any genre), check out the Marston Composition Collective, weekly classes exploring all kinds of creative methods of composition.

Songwriters, consider Portland Songwriters Association. They have regular meetings, open mics, and periodic seminars with music pros.

Music fans

Artichoke Community Music, a nonprofit venue in Southeast Portland, offers live shows, open mics, classes, and instrument sales. Genre focus is folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass and less loud styles.

PDX Presents has live concert photography, music playlists, artist and venue features, and information about the explosive Portland Music Scene.

While cities like Austin, Texas have good music scenes of their own. But there's a key difference here: on a beautiful summer evening, you and your friends can safely ride your bikes a few miles to a venue, catch a show, and ride home again, singing the chorus out loud. No highways, no traffic jams.

Portland Winter Lights Fest by Brett Nemecek

Arts & Events

Check them out:

Event calendars

More stuff to do