October 11, 2011

Story by David Nguyen

Each year, Portland Parks & Recreation offers a lineup of free, family-friendly, fun events for Portlanders to enjoy all summer long - the Summer Free for All.

This past summer was a record-setting season for the Free for All. Here are a few highlights:

• We screened 47 movies all over the city - more than 40,000 people came out for a show!

• We serenaded more than 31,000 concert-goers at 16 sites, compared to 29,000 people at 15 sites last year

• More than 22,000 people, 5,000 more than last year, came out for a concert at Washington Park, where we offered a great 10-day schedule of performances

• Three PP&R pools gave more than 22,000 swim lessons to local kids

• We served more than 101,000 free, healthy lunches to Portland-area kids, far surpassing the 78,000 we provided last year

Not only did we see increased attendance at our Free for All events this past summer, we received incredible community support for the programming - sponsorship for the Free for All increased by more than $45,000 from last year.

We're so proud of the Free for All's success! If you didn't make it to a movie or concert (or you missed out on climbing the traveling rock wall), next year is sure to be spectacular as well.

We'll see you then!

Photo: We borrowed this from flickr user K. Kendall, who had a great time at a Washington Park concert!