Our long-awaited 2023 Portland Fermentation Festival at Ecotrust last week was absolutely fantastic. We filled our new ground level Irving Street Studio space and third floor rooftop with our wild and free stinky fun vibes. We hadn’t been able to gather for our fest since 2019, so after a three-year festival hiatus we were all so very happy to come together to celebrate, learn about and sample all things funky and fermented.
If you were a part in any way — thank you! Stinkfest has always been for the people by the people. There was a lot that made this year stand out, including the fact that we had our extra-special guest of honor Kirsten Shockey travel up to Portland from her southern Oregon farm home to kick-off the fest with an inspiring and empowering talk. We rolled out the sparkly green carpet for her and had so much fun. Thank you, Kirsten! We are so grateful.
I recorded Kirsten’s talk, demo and Q&A, and although it isn’t super great audio quality (I recorded it with my little journalist dig. recorder and there’s a good deal of background noise) and it starts a few minutes into our fest welcome plus introduction, it’s still a good ear-in for those fest attendees who want to re-listen and for those who couldn’t make it this year. Just click on the player below.
I also highly recommend checking out this fun short video that Mike Truong of All the Homies Network and Faint Media made of our last 2019 Stinkfest because he and his crew came to this year’s fest to shoot it and we’ll share the video from that on our socials once it’s completed. We’re excited about it. And, if you’re feeling nostalgic, at the end of the post I’ve included links to recaps of every stinking one of our Stinkfests. Pretty fun to scroll through photos of those way-back-when ones.
I love that we had yet another sun-shined-upon festival day and night. Strangely enough, even though our Portland festival is always held in the rainy fall, we always have beautiful weather for it. As I like to say, the sun always shines on Stinkfest! That makes the third floor rooftop of Ecotrust all the more magical on festival night.
On the rooftop for this year’s festival we had cider from Swift Cider, food from DesiPDX and music from DJ Jimbo (check out his festival playlist here — so good! And his Electric Avenue show on XRAY.FM). Dreamy.
Another festival standout this year was the return of the Fermentation Station, conceived by and organized by festival co-organizer Claudia Lucero of Urban Cheesecraft. That station is always especially a hit with fest kids and, as always, kids 12 and younger get in for free. At the Fermentation Station this year, festival attendees got try their hand at making their very own dilly beans to jar up and take home to ferment. So sweet. I love that Stinkfest gets to be the annual event where so many Portlanders, of all ages, first try their hand at fermenting. All of the beans, salt and spices were so very kindly donated yet again by People's Food Co-op. Thank you, People's!
We also welcomed back the Starter Barter & Adoption Center where fest attendees bring a SCOBY, take a SCOBY, bring water kefir grains, take water kefir grains! I brought dozens of my personal vinegar and kombucha SCOBYS bagged up along with printed up recipes from my new cookbook Fermenter (!!). I co-authored Fermenter with Aaron Adams, who you’ll soon see in some of the tasting photos below.
This year we had a brand-spanking-new festival station helmed by the lovely Heather Arndt Anderson and conceived and organized by Claudia — the Bacterial Petting Zoo! Words simply do not do it justice. Scroll down to see the fizzy and fermenty critters.
Thank you to everyone who came out for our long awaited 2023 STINKFEST and made it so special and fun! We are incredibly grateful to everyone who makes our festival so fantastic year after year, including our host with the very most, Ecotrust. We couldn't do it without them. We love, love, love Ecotrust and their non-profit mission. Others who make our festival thrive year after year include our wonderful exhibitors, demo'rs, rooftop vendors, kick-ass volunteers and local media folks who always help us get the word out. And you! Our fest attendees are incomparable. Photographic evidence below :)
If you didn't check out any of the festival coverage this year, I highly recommend tuning into the pre-fest Stinkfest Queens radio spot on KBOO with Ken Jones. We brought Ken different ferments that we got to enjoy after the segment — co-organizer Heidi Nestler’s Wanpaku Natto, my homemade dandelion wine and some garlicky Fermenter cookbook Sour Dills. Oh and we really loved this Portland Mercury article too.
In terms of social media, we have our fest Instagram + Facebook and Twitter if you want to see more, and/or post or repost something. On social media please consider adding the hashtag #pdxfermentfest to any of your festival photos or vids. We’d love to see them.
And, once more, here’s a reminder of why we do what we do straight from our press release: The Portland Fermentation Festival is, and always has been, a non-commercial event. Once you purchase your ticket and enter the festival you will not be sold to. The wide array of food and drink ferments are not for sale, they are for sampling. We will have hard cider and food to purchase as respite on the rooftop, but the mission of festival has always been firmly rooted in no sales. Our one-night annual event fosters learning, connecting, communicating and celebrating fermentation with one another. We believe that transactional interactions often get in the way of that.
Ok, without further ado, some 2023 festival photos! Stay stinky! XOXOXO
P.S. I’m not giving photo credits here. Please just know that I took most of them and there are additional photos by Claudia Lucero and others.