On a semi-sunny Saturday afternoon in May, a gritty city block in downtown Portland, Ore. stirred with a giddy sense of anticipation. It’s been a rough few post-Covid years for this part of the city, but today was different — tents arose, a stage emerged, grinning locals wandered curiously as a block party came to life in the middle of the city. It was the first annual 503 Day Block Party — a holiday and event conceived by City Cast Portland, the local podcast and newsletter that aims to capture the daily Portland conversation.
The 503 Day Block Party would be a five-hour extravaganza of civic pride, complete with a “Portland icons” costume contest, drag queen storytelling, live band karaoke, a performance by the beloved Portland figure the Unipiper, and, critically, an official mayoral proclamation declaring that 503 Day is an official holiday, read by members of Portland’s city council. The event was joyous, eclectic and completely unlike what you might expect from a journalism organization. But according to the City Cast Portland team that produced it, this is what local media can and should look like. Here’s how City Cast Portland Senior Producer Giulia Fiaoni broke it down.
Photo credit Mark Poucher
Q: Okay, let’s start with the basics. What is 503 Day?
A: 503 Day was a dream my team and I had a couple years ago — we were looking for any excuse to celebrate our city. “503” is our area code, which we’ve translated into a date — May 3. We wanted an opportunity to say, hey, we know this city has gone through a lot, like so many cities, coming out of the pandemic. We wanted to create space to say, this is why we choose Portland! We wanted to show civic pride. To express ways people are bettering their communities, whether that’s volunteering or something as simple as supporting local businesses. We envisioned a day where we could celebrate and not ignore our challenges, but embrace them and acknowledge the ways we stick through them together.
Q: Describe the day for us — what was it like?
Photo credit Mark Poucher
A: It was a big party right in the heart of downtown Portland.
We erected this massive stage where we hosted some really beloved local bands, with emcees that people know and love. There were artists and vendors and community organizations repping their things, and local food and drink for people to enjoy. It was free and open — it felt like it was everyone’s backyard. So many different types of people showed up, nearly 5,000 people by the end of the day. Folks as young as 11 years old participated, and people much much older. I saw so many people I didn’t expect to see– politicians, artists, service industry workers, community leaders, even folks from the houseless community found a way to engage.
I had people come up to me and offer to volunteer in the middle of the event. It caught me off guard how willing people were to engage! It was really fluid. There were so many moments when I talked to folks and they were like, this reminds me of Portland decades ago, when we weren’t suffering from these challenges.
Q: What was the origin of the idea?
A: The idea originally came out of one of our usual team meetings (made up of senior executive producer John Notarianni, host Claudia Meza, newsletter editor Rachel Monahan, and Giulia). We were thinking about ways we could be engaging with Portland differently from how we have on the show and newsletter. Someone threw out the idea of a city holiday, that we could tie to the 503 area code. We did a lot of dreaming about what 503 Day Could be — but then our ideas were shaped by our audience. As soon as we started talking on the show about our hopes for 503 Day, we had folks writing in and telling us how we could be celebrating it — people wrote in with their proposed city mottos, and we even had someone write us a 503 Day theme song!
In 2024, we didn’t hold a big event for 503 Day, but we did unofficially declare the holiday and we did a bunch of podcast and newsletter programming around it. Eventually we caught the ear of a city worker (Greg Raisman, Livable Streets Program specialist at Portland Bureau of Transportation) who was so motivated to make it happen that he got us the space for the block party this year. The partnership with him and the city made the event feel like part of the community from the start.
Photo credit Mark Poucher
Q: Why was it important for it to be a holiday?
A: Having 503 Day be an official holiday really solidified the celebration as important and relevant and something for everyone. It got the city and politicians and leaders involved in a direct way. It gives people a way to think about how they can get involved in civic work and community activation. It gives people something to look forward to — it means everyone is thinking about it every year and it’s a real priority.
Q: What was the goal?
A: From the start, the number one goal was uplifting Portland. The easiest way to do that was through partnerships and community activation. The planning became easier the more folks we got involved. Everyone had their own thing that they knew best. The other critical goal was to establish our daily show and newsletter as an essential community hub. We’re not just a podcast, we’re a space for bringing people together.
Q: You don’t see a lot of media companies declaring holidays or throwing block parties — why does this make sense as a journalistic endeavor?
A: It’s no secret that the media is seen as divisive right now. In our community, folks are hesitant to engage with us, they even question the value of it. But chasing after an idea that is celebratory, collaborative and even silly starts to center local media as something that is FOR the local community, that works to better it. That invites folks to jump in beside us.
Something like a city block party can be a real equalizing force — you may have differences with your next door neighbor but if you find out you love the same sports team, suddenly you’re hanging out in their backyard on game day. We want to create this point where folks come together and say, we’re all here and we all love Portland. Let’s engage with it, along with journalists and reporters who see the ugly corners of what’s going on around us. It’s an excuse to come together that fills a hole people have in terms of community connection. Why not have local media address these issues? Why not have local media hold that space? We put in so much work to know the city as well as we do. Why not use it?
The skills and effort we put into knowing something so well we can report on it — those are the same skills involved in making a city better.
Photo credit Mark Poucher
Q: What was hardest about creating this event?
A: I had a really hard time trusting that people would show up. It was something that had never been done before. In my mind, I kept anticipating skeptical people asking, who are you? What are you doing? What’s this about? But on the actual day, there was this ease about it all. Folks from all over the city came, and some people came from out in the suburbs to celebrate with us. It seemed like anytime someone walked through they just naturally found the thing that was most interesting to them: vendor, restaurant, something on stage. Everyone looked so joyful and at ease.
Q: What advice would you give to a journalism outlet considering doing something like this?
A: I would say, the area code approach might not work for everyone. But what’s really core is thinking about what your community celebrates every year. In Portland, when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, everyone goes to the waterfront to see them and celebrate with each other. But it can be as easy as the first river swim. Or when farmers market season starts. There’s really no limit when it comes to connecting to what folks are excited about where you live. Consider that before everything else.
