Last weekend I enjoyed myself in a whole new way.  I didn’t spend a dime on entertainment (except a few tips) and only hopped in the car twice for a quick carpool.  I spent the whole day Sunday biking around SE Portland, hanging out at parks, farmers markets, and street fairs. The best part?  It was completely impromptu.

Waking up Sunday morning, I had no plan to spend the whole day out and about, let alone leave the house (yes, sometimes I’m quite the hermit).  So how did I find all these things to do on such short notice and no real plan?  I have to hand it to a local blog I frequent, PDX Pipeline, for keeping me in the loop about all sorts of less publicized things going on around town as well as a few community bloggers at The Oregonian.

I think the lesson here is that to find the small, fun and free events in your area, you really need to stay in touch with the local community.  All the big, paid admission events with sizable advertising budgets are easy to find.  They’re also full of people.  I’ve found it’s a lot easier to hang out and connect with interesting people at smaller events.  I think you let your guard down a bit more when you’re not being bombarded by other people.

Let’s dissect my Sunday escapade.  There’s likely some useful info in there that will apply where you live and can help you find free, local events to learn more about sustainability and meet interesting people.

Farmer’s Market

Every weekend I get up at the crack of dawn to help Jessie load up her car for the farmer’s market.  Sometimes I’ll tag along and sometimes I’ll just go back to bed or sit around in my underwear until I feel like greeting the day.  On Sundays, she’s pretty close by so I’ll ride my bike out to make a quick appearance, eat a cupcake and wander around. This week, my mom was in town with no bike, so we took her car.  It’s easy to spend a few hours here shopping for fresh, organic produce, talking with booth owners and market goers, and listening to the live bands that are practically obligatory for every open-air market.

I recommend anyone interested in sustainability and food spend a little time at their local farmer’s market.  Vendors are usually more than happy to chat about their farms and what they’re doing to help promote the local food movement. This weekend I had no need to buy anything, so I simply sat at one of the open tables at the center of the market and tapped my foot to the music in the air.  Drop a dollar in the open guitar case and I’m off to the next adventure.

Sunday Parkways

While driving out to the farmer’s market, I couldn’t help but notice that the police were blocking the street at a number of intersections (thinking “oh great, what’s this protest about), allowing what appeared to be a sea of bicycles to cross uninterrupted as cars backed up for blocks, waiting their turn.  As soon as we got home, I hopped on the Oregonian site to see if there was any news about it.

Sure enough, there was an article explaining that 3 times a summer, a huge swath of streets are shut down in different neighborhoods around town to allow bikers to ride around, just for fun, without the hassle of cars for a day.  The pathway normally leads to a number of different parks where people can mingle, learn about local clubs and organizations that serve the community, and, presumably, talk about bike stuff.

Awesome! I hop on the road bike I bought in 6^th grade (cue memories of the bear riding the tricycle at the circus) and head out to see what it’s all about.  Along the way, I engage other riders with thought provoking statements like, “Hey!”, and “What’s up?”

Bike Share Demonstration

While searching for info on the parkways, I happened upon another article explaining that the City of Portland was planning to implement another really cool program that we have no funding for: a bike share program!  They promised it would be different from the free program we tried in the 90s that ended with a bunch of vandalized and stolen bikes and everyone scratching their head asking, “What happened?” A demonstration of possible solutions was being held all day at a nearby park for public comment.

Turns out, there are a number of cities embracing this idea now.  Lots of places in Europe have functioning systems, Washington D.C. has a small program, one was just installed in Montreal, Denver is putting one in, and now Portland is interested again.  “Cool,” I thought, “I’ll take the Sunday Parkway down and check it out.” Synergy.

The event was much more than I expected.  I must have spent about an hour talking to representatives about their programs and how they could work in a city like ours.  There was a band playing that I sat and watched for awhile, and I made my way around the park, stopping to chat with the local clubs and programs promoting themselves at booths set up along the walkways before hopping back on the bike and heading home.  And I almost didn’t go, thinking it wouldn’t be worth the ride all the way over to the park.  Glad I took the opportunity.

Hawthorne Street Fair

Thinking that my day couldn’t possibly be filled with any more free entertainment, I rode home and hopped back on the internet to read a few blogs.  Lo and behold, PDX Pipeline kindly reminded me that the Hawthorne St. Fair was taking place all day today.  There would be more vendors, neighborhood programs, art, music, and likely a few tall bikes cruising around, pissing off drivers.

I was kind of tired, but how could I pass it up? Unfortunately, I had to abandon the bike to get my mom and Jessie over there with me, but it was a short car trip and completely worth it (it would have been better to ride the bus, but we were in a hurry to get there before it ended).

Two hours later and I had met about 15 more awesome neighborhood artists and businesses, won a button spinning a big wheel, and found a new favorite street band – The Bellboys.  Here’s a link to their myspace page.  I’m sure they could use a few new fans.

How to make (and keep making) your own frugally green weekends

Wow, what a day! Waking up I never would have imagined what it would turn into. I had lots of fun and learned about sustainability for a total of $3 that I left in tips for artists and musicians that I appreciated. Looking back, I think I picked up a few basic ideas that anyone can use to find these kinds of events and then keep finding them.  They all boil down to staying in touch with the community around you.

• Read local newspapers. They don’t come out frequently, so this is better for events you can plan ahead for.  If your city has neighborhood rags, they’ll be your best bet for finding the cool little things that slip through the cracks of the bigger publications.

• Social Media is key. For last minute ideas, city/community specific blogs are awesome for keeping you up to date.  You can also rely on friends to clue you in on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

• Don’t miss an opportunity. If you know something is going on and you’re just not sure about it, go check it out anyway.  The worst that will happen is you’ll skip it the next time it comes around.  In my case, I wasn’t expecting to run into all that I did at the park, but I’m sure glad I did.

• Sign up for email lists. If you run into something or someone you find interesting and they offer email updates, sign up!  Nobody likes spam, but my experience has always been that there is an inverse relationship between the size of an event and the amount of worthless advertising they send out.  Most of the groups you run into at these small-time events just want to let you know what they’re up to.  Lots of times they’ll even point you to other groups doing interesting things that you’ll be happy to know about.

This kind of entertainment is not exactly mainstream or conventional. It’s not as easy to find as a nightclub downtown or a movie ticket to this weeks blockbuster hit.  But you know what?  I think it’s a lot more fun.  In all my years, I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone new or interesting at the movie theater, but I probably met 20 new and interesting people just this Sunday.

What kind of free entertainment do you enjoy? How do you find (or create) it? Please join in the conversation.