Grassroots Festival

For one Saturday each August, Main Street in Union, Oregon, closes to vehicles. Craft and food vendors line one side and the car show fills the other, so visitors walk down past the booths and loop back past the cars. The Union Grassroots Festival and Car Show is hosted by the City of Union, according to the Union County Chamber of Commerce, and it is free. The 2026 festival fell on Saturday, August 8, and ran from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. It was themed in red, white and blue for America’s 250th anniversary, and the car show took the name “Remember When” Car Show, USA 250th Celebration.

“I think it will be a really good year,” organizer Donna Beverage told The Observer before the 2026 festival, “with the celebration of America’s 250th birthday.” Beverage is the festival’s listed contact. Main Street Union, a nonprofit at 251 S. Main St. whose stated purpose is “Fostering economic revitalization, growth, and vitality for generations to come,” posted the festival’s notices through the spring and took in the vendors’ fees.

Breakfast burritos and yard-sale maps

The 2026 day began at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 518 N. Main St., where breakfast was served from 7 to 10 a.m. Diners could sit down or take a breakfast burrito with them. A yard sale outside the hall raised money for the VFW. From 7 a.m. the post office and the town’s businesses handed out maps to the citywide yard sales, which numbered more than 30 that year and ran through the whole festival.

At 9 a.m. the vendors opened, and so did the Friends of the Library book and bake sale. The cars came out at the same hour after checking in in front of the post office on S. Main St., and a poker walk and a show-and-shine ran until 4 p.m. A sidewalk chalk art contest ran alongside the car show, with chalk handed out at the hardware store. The Union County Museum, 333 S. Main St., waived admission from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Ducks on Catherine Creek

Union City Park holds the middle of the day. On the 2026 program, children learned to rope and rode the kiddie carnival there from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the Lion’s Club ran a duck train. The Chamber of Commerce listing names pony rides as well. On Main Street in front of the park, the Union Fire Department set up a shower for anyone who needed to cool off. The park gazebo carried the music: Systems DJ from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., then the Mike Mallory Trio from 3 to 5. From noon to 2 p.m. the Blue Mountain Old Time Fiddlers played at the post office.

At 2 p.m. a starting pistol sent rubber ducks down Catherine Creek. Ducks sold for $5 each, and the proceeds went to the Union High School seniors’ class trip. Prizes were given out at two spots. At 3:30 p.m., in front of the post office, came the car show trophy and the poker walk winners. At 4 p.m., at the gazebo, Hometown Hardware named the winners of the duck race and the crazy hat contest. Main Street Union had told people in June to “start brainstorming your best design ideas” for those hats.

Lawnmowers and a street dance

The lawnmower race started at 5:30 p.m. The Union County Chamber of Commerce also lists a pie-eating contest among the festival’s events. The day closed with a family street dance, with DJ Scott Newman playing from 7:30 until 10 p.m.