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Portland, Oregon Stays Weird with Nude Cyclists, Giant Foam Pranks

Banks of foam about eight feet high inhabited the Forecourt Tuesday morning in the early hours

(Portland, Oregon) – Maybe it’s a sign of spring. Perhaps it’s those stickers on lots of cars that read “Keep Portland Weird.” Or maybe it’s a counter-reaction to the somewhat aesthetically droll Rose Festival. Whatever the case, the Rose City stayed true to its individualistic roots and bared it all this weekend, while also creating a giant foam monster that attacked a famous downtown fountain.

Saturday, about 800 naked bike riders took to Portland, Oregon’s streets, making the biggest contribution to the World Naked Bike Ride – an annual protest to dependency on oil. As if that wasn’t enough, on Monday night, one of the largest ever soap sud pranks hit the Forecourt Fountain on 4th Street downtown, with eight-foot high banks of foam smothering the Portland landmark.

BeachConnection.net staff from the Portland office caught glimpse of about 40 riders in the buff, making their way down SE Madison. A large group of them had parked their bikes on a street between Hawthorne and Madison, and were in various stages of redressing.

Those still cruising down the street were mostly naked; some wore various forms of underwear, or wore nothing but belts, helmets and their backpacks – which presumably carried their clothes.

One man reported seeing “one thousand” of them in NW Portland, clogging streets there.

The protest started after midnight. By 2 a.m., most appeared to be clothed again, and a steady stream of them were seen back in their clothing, heading over the Hawthorne Bridge.

The annual protest drew about 500 riders last year. Organizers told The Oregonian that Portland’s is the largest of the worldwide event.

Even more spectacular, sometimes the foam would glow when next to light sources, which made it look even more otherworldly

At the Forecourt Fountain downtown, it’s a regular occurrence where someone dumps a bunch of detergent into the fountain and creates a mass of flying and lurking foam, looking a gang of giant blamanges – Monty Python-style – had taken over the fountain.

Usually, it happens in the summertime, in warmer weather. But this time, according to some onlookers, the foam was much larger and looming than usual. Giant banks of the white stuff stood as much as eight feet high in some spots, and often about 15 feet wide. It was impossible to tell the length of the gargantuan fluffy stuff, but it was impressive, said BeachConnection.net editor Andre’ Hagestedt.

“I was coming through downtown on my way home about 2:30 a.m. and spotted this huge chunk of foam sitting on the grass, just over the bluff from the fountain,” Hagestedt said.

“I’m always attracted to large chunks of foam on the beaches, so this intrigued me. It was really cool. I’ve never seen anything like it. These giant things would move and sort of pulsate and sway in the wind, making them look alive. I chuckled to myself that they looked like aliens sitting around planning something. Maybe it would just be something harmless, like crashing someone's parties or trying to shoplift in a store. That cracked me up. Can you imagine these big things shuffling through a grocery store?”

City officials frown on this sort of prank, partially because of health concerns should children start to play around in them.

Note: Normally BeachConnection.net covers only Oregon coast tourism, science and entertainment. But with offices in Manzanita, Newport and Portland, we are in a position to catch news in a lot of different places around the state. Sometimes, news is news, no matter where it happens - especially when it's amusing and adds another dimension to tourism in Oregon.

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