Salt and Sage stages two Shakespeare heavy-hitters in repertory. Voyage to a magical, fairy-filled forest one night and to a fracturing kingdom the next—or visit them both on the same day. —RJ

Sometimes, a KBOO fundraiser grows up to be one of the country’s most beloved music festivals. Find stages set among trees, hammocks strung up for lounging, and a bill featuring Steve Earle, Alela Diane, Quasi, the Womack Sisters, and Fabiano do Nascimento. —RJ

Like Portland’s old Big Float, but, you know, smaller! Grab a life jacket and BYO floatie to the Inflation Station at the southern burb's Milwaukie Bay Park, and then take a pontoon shuttle to Elk Rock Island for a 0.4-mile float back. Onshore, catch bands, handmade boat demos, and an address from Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson. —MS

Six years ago, Portland actor and social services advocate Paul Susi signed on to play a Chinese laborer named Chee Gong in Lone Fir Cemetery’s Tour of Untimely Departures. The role sent Susi on a quest to learn more about the Chinese laborers buried at the Southeast Portland graveyard. That’s among the experiences he recounts in his debut book, Character Work, which he’ll read from tonight. —RJ

Fourteen concerts come to Pioneer Courthouse Square over the stretch of two weeks, kicking off with Ani DiFranco on August 4. The lineup also includes Muna, Courtney Barnett, Vince Staples, Sugar, and the Breeders (with opening support from Team Dresch). —RJ

Benson Boone is not just the kid who does backflips off of pianos. Sometimes he flips forward. And sometimes he winds up with a gymnastic cartwheel maneuver to build momentum on the ground—probably when there’s no piano handy. Whichever move he picks, he most often wears a glittery onesie while doing it, and he does the trick just before the first chorus of “Beautiful Things,” the song in which he begs God not to take away “the girl He sent my way.” —Matthew Trueherz

What can grown-ups learn from reading children's picture books? Mac Barnett, the celebrated children's book author currently serving as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, teams up with the Decemberists' Colin Meloy and former Oregon poet laureate Anis Mojgani for a dive into what makes picture books so magical. —RJ

All ages, all local, all free: The annual volunteer-run music festival, launched in 2004, returns for another wide-ranging weekend of shows. The lineup includes more than two dozen artists, with genres spanning from electronic to punk to shoegaze to hip-hop to folk to pop. —RJ

The touring film fest, founded in Portland in 2003, lands back in the city that launched it. It's a two-day spree of short films, made in both the United States and abroad, about bicycles and those who love riding them. —RJ

The actor and standup comedian brings her razor-sharp, gloriously raunchy takes on sex, dating, and motherhood to the Schnitz. —RJ

It's the end of the Lloyd Center as we knew it, and this Saturday marks the 67-year-old mall's last official day of operation before it’s razed and redeveloped into a “mixed-use neighborhood.” The lineup is absurdly stacked: Prepare for a silent disco led by Vera Mysteria; a magic show; a mall tour; a funeral procession on bike; an open-invite vendor fair; a community mural painting; a stage with live music, DJs, and karaoke; and at 6:45pm, right before the doors close, a farewell ice skate for Jerry and Tally Leonard, a couple who’ve been gliding at this rink since 1967. —RJ

Indy Sleaze himself James Murphy plays a duo of Edgefield shows. In his own words, “Never change, never change, never change, never change / Never change, never change, never change.” The one caveat is (of course) that it’s totally fine to change to make someone fall in love with you. —MT

This tour marks the 20th anniversary of The Greatest, recorded in Memphis with a slew of the, well, greatest session musicians the legendarily blues capital had to offer in the mid-2000s. And we’re fast approaching the 30th anniversary of the Chan Marshall/Cat Power’s first Matador Records release, What Would the Community Think, if we want to keep celebrating the confessional indie singer-songwriter. —MS

Every August, an absolute menagerie of homemade derby cars, operated by costumed Portlanders, tear down the extinct cinder cone that is Mount Tabor, reaching speeds of up to 50 mph. It’s goofy and joyous and terribly crowded, and it must be experienced at least once. The race is known to attract up to 10,000 spectators, and the smart ones make a plan to bike, walk, or hop on the 15 or FX2 bus. —RJ

This trade show/handmade bicycle showcase in the South Waterfront is both a start and endpoint for many a Pedalpalooza ride this weekend. —MS

Raise your hand if you have ever been personally nutmegged by Tobin Heath. The Jersey girl turned Tarheel turned longtime Portland and US national team star announced her retirement from the game last year. Portland fans have been feeling her absence for a lot longer than that: No one knew her seventh season with the team, in 2019, would be her last at Providence Park. After the 2020 season was scuttled in the pandemic, she played in England and saw her rights transferred to other NWSL teams, but she's signing a one-day contract so she can officially retire as a Thorn. Heath cemented legend status the first-ever NWSL championship game, rocketing a free kick practically from outer space (36 yards out) into the back of the net. She's only added to the legacy since, and remains the team's all-time assist leader. The Thorns (no. 4 in the standings at press time) are holding an on-field ceremony in Heath's honor before their 5:45pm game against the Denver Summit (no. 11). —MS

The most critically acclaimed band you never heard of, Silkworm toured incessantly in the ’90s and early 2000s and released a dozen albums before drummer Michael Dahlquist was killed in a car crash caused by an allegedly suicidal driver. Following a one-off set at a memorial for producer Steve Albini in 2024, last fall founding members Tim Midyett, Andy Cohen, and Joel R. L. Phelps reunited for a smattering of dates beginning in their most recent home base of Chicago and now spreading westward, with drummer Jeff Panall. Sometimes poppy, sometimes dirgy, but always loud, Silkworm is a post-punk by way of prog-rock powerhouse that defies comparison or categorization. To be missed only at your everlasting regret. —DE

The World Forestry Center once again hosts a very famous piece of wood: the log used in Twin Peaks, held by actor Catherine Coulson in her role as Margaret Lanterman, a.k.a. the Log Lady. I Know Catherine, a documentary about the David Lynch regular and Oregon Shakespeare Fest vet, will screen through the day, and there's also a Log Lady lookalike contest and a pie-eating challenge. While you're there, learn about trees, forest dwellers, fire risks, and more. —MS

The Portland-born animator and Oscar nominee, now 80, brings his Barkin’ Dog Collection of shorts to downtown's Living Room Theaters. A Q&A follows the screening, and all attendees will get a free drawing. Keeping up the canine theme, a portion of ticket sales goes to the Oregon Humane Society. —MS

Law, a retired journalist who spent time at Salem’s Statesman Journal and the Portland Tribune, traces the history of the KKK in Peddlers of Hate: How the Ku Klux Klan Seized Power in 1920s Oregon. Read Chris Lydgate's review here. 

The citywide triennial, this year titled Here, To You, Now and featuring 28 artists and 17 new commissions across 16 venues, kicks off with a weekend of opening receptions, performances, community cookouts, and a bioplastics workshop with local artist Meech Boakye. The work this year is all inspired by the writing of Portland legend Ursula K. Le Guin, and programming will continue through fall. Check out five picks from curator Lumi Tan. —RJ

Portland dance company Open Space always cooks up something worth seeing, and there's special charge to its end-of-summer show, a collaboration with sister company LED Boise. Expect new work as well as excerpts from the latest piece by Open Space artistic director Franco Nieto, "Do You See Me?" —RJ

No one does cumbia quite like Portland's Orquestra Pacifico Tropical. The well-populated group—founded in 2012 by drummer Papi Fimbres and guitarist Carlos Segovia, nearly 20 members have passed through over the years—bring joyful bombast and a psychedelic spirit to classic cumbia music. Tonight, the band celebrates the release of its third studio album, El Poder. —RJ