FEATURED EVENT
Holiday Ale Festival
Pioneer Courthouse Square
11 a.m.–11 p.m., Nov. 30–Dec. 4
Fee: $35 (advanced or at door), VIP Packages available
21+
For 21 years, this outdoor celebration of winter beers and ales has been dazzling of-age adults with its crafted bliss. With over 50 beers specially brewed just for the event, the Holiday Ale Festival is a must-see for all the craft connoisseurs out there.
Tented off and heated up with lamps, you’d never know this festive event was being held outdoors and the nearly 14,000 attendants that come during the week-long fest often have amazing things to say about the tasters they imbibe. When you purchase your tickets at the door, you will get some tickets for beer tastings, and more are available for purchase after those are spent. Please drink responsibly. For the designated driver, a root beer garden will also be available. If you’ve bought a mug from this event in the past, those mugs will not be refilled, only mugs from this year.
Drag Queen Bingo
Wednesday, Nov. 30
6 p.m.
Fee: $15
21+
Poison Waters will be hosting this social event for those who embrace the gay within themselves and the men who love to dress as women and camp it up. Drag Queen Bingo is not just a social experience, it’s really a way of life.
Glass Etching Workshop
Wednesday, Nov. 30
Beech Street Parlor
6:30–9 p.m.
Fee: $40
Registration in advance is requested, so please call before heading to the parlor. Just in time for the holidays, learn about the techniques and tips in order to create up to four personalized pint or cocktail glasses. It’s art you can use!
End of Year Celebration
Thursday, Dec. 1
Portland Art Museum
5:30–9 p.m.
ViveNW/Hispanicpros, Literary Arts, and the NW Film Center are gathering for an end of the year celebration of the works produced in the community this year while also debuting works for the upcoming year.
Parfumerie
Thursday, Dec. 1
Venetian Theatre (Hillsboro)
7:30 p.m.–midnight
Fee: $22–32
All of those rom coms you love (You’ve Got Mail, etc.) are based on this old Czechoslavakian play about feuding co-workers and small businesses being swallowed up by corporations. If it helps any though, love always conquers at the end of the day.
The Most Wonderful Season
Friday, Dec. 2
Newmark Theatre
8 p.m.
Fee: $17–50
The Portland Gay Men’s Chorus celebrates the diversity of the holiday seasons that all seem to be jam packed into December together. One-hundred-thirty gay male voices will fill the Newmark with love, light, and hope enough to get you through probably even cold, gray January.
A Civil War Christmas
Saturday, Dec. 3
Artists Repertory Theatre, Alder Stage
7:30 p.m.
Fee: $25+
Arguably the only holiday season in more contention than ours, this musical celebration witnesses the conflict of humanity between righteousness and hope, a battle for the present and the future. The frigid banks of the Potomac River are the setting of bittersweet holiday musical tale. Runs through Dec. 23.
A Christmas Carol
Post 5 Theatre
7:30–9:30 p.m.
Not your traditional Dickens tale, this is billed as a one-man ghost story brought to you by Phillip J. Berns, a local character actor. Called a shapeshifter and a guide, this unique spin on the tale of personal journey and redemption in ye olde England runs through Dec. 17.
Advent Lessons & Carols
Advent Lessons & Carols
Sunday, Dec. 4
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
5–6:30 p.m.
Fee: Good will offering
Solemn but not somber, this traditional way to kick off a holiday season is a reminder that the holiday can be about more than gifts and dead trees haunting the living room for a month, but can be a celebration of peace and hope lighting the way to a better us.
Portland Winterhawks
Sunday, Dec. 4
Memorial Coliseum
5 p.m.
Fee: $17–52
Our own three-time champion junior ice hockey team takes on the Medicine Hat Tigers in a thrilling match up of pucks, skates, helmets, and ice antics for the whole family.