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  Memorial Day Weekend in Grants Pass, Oregon
 

Carnival at Riverside Park
click here >> ^{for the} Memorial Day Hydroplane Races
^{for the} Grants Pass Boatnik Parade << click here

Welcome to Grants Pass, Oregon, and WOW, did you ever show up anywhere at a more opportune time?  Besides being the Best River Town in America, not to mention one of the five best places in the World to live (according to both Forbes and Time magazines) but on Memorial Day weekend we have twice as much fun as any three cities four times our size!

Follow the links above to check out our famous whitewater hydroplane races or to find information about our downtown parade including photographic highlights from parades past. For more specific information--including event schedules, parade line-ups, and jetboat race participants & sponsors--go to www.boatnik.com.

The carnival opens Thursday afternoon, and for four days the Park is really hopping!  It starts a little slow on Saturday as most of the crowd is downtown watching the parade, but soon things begin to happen and people flock to Riverside Park from all directions -- and from considerable distances, as nearby parking can be described as 'competitive' at best.  Below we see the pathway being beaten from the park's southwest corner, near the intersection of Park and Rogue River Highway / 7th Street.

Scroll down to check out some of the action from a past years Boatnik Carnival held in Riverside Park!

Here are a few panaramas of all the classic carnival rides, plus a few I don't remember from when I was a kid—but that was a long time ago and maybe it's the memory that isn't what it used to be...  The food doesn't seem to have changed a lot, at least not since the Grants Pass Cavemen first invented fire, but the vendor booths are another story, peddling all sorts of nouveau knick-knackery and wares. Alas, the art of souvenirs, trinkets and t-shirts continues to expand at a phenomenal pace!

By the way, if something or someone special catches your eye, you can usually click on the photo to see it super-sized in a new browser window—at least in the smaller photos.
  

Yikes! What is that banded orb high in the sky above the ride below? Is it the planet JUPITER?!?
Wow!  These rides really have improved—oh, wait a minute—nope, it's just some dust on my lens...

And of course no carnival would be complete without the gaming booths, but like the kids above I'd just as soon spend my money on the rides!

What?!? You've already run out of money!  The weekend is young, so maybe it's time to visit the ATM, conveniently located near the restrooms for those who have spent their entire wad in the beer garden.

If you're still around town for the first Friday in June, be sure to join us downtown from 6 to 9 pm for Grants Pass' First Friday Art Walk & Roving Gallery Artist's Party, co-sponsored by the Artists and Merchants of Grants Pass, Oregon! 
Click here for First Friday Art Night Information & Schedule.