2026 Sponsors and Venues
Regional Arts & Culture Council and The office OF Arts & Culture
We are extremely grateful to the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) and The Office of Arts & Culture for awarding the Bigfoot Poetry Festival a grant of $5,000 for our 2026 season. This grant will go towards helping the festival cover venue rentals, advertisements, printing materials and festival brochures, and so much more.
The RACC’s mission: For decades, RACC has aimed to serve every neighborhood of our region to ensure that arts and culture are accessible to all. Our mission is to enrich our communities through arts and culture. We envision a thriving region, powered by creativity, with arts and culture in every neighborhood.
Awesome Portland Foundation
We are so excited to announce that Awesome Portland (the local chapter of the Awesome Foundation) has awarded the Bigfoot Poetry Festival a grant of $1,000 for our 2026 season. This grant will go towards renting space at our primary venue this year, the downtown Hyatt Centric, as well as buying free snacks for festival attendees, available at the Central Library.
The Awesome Foundation’s mission: The Awesome Foundation is an ever-growing worldwide community devoted to forwarding the interest of awesome in the universe.
The hyatt Centric Downtown Portland
601 SW 11th Ave.
We’re pleased to announce that our primary venue this year will be the Hyatt Centric in downtown Portland! We’ll be hosting poetry open mics and workshops in the Hyatt Centric’s second floor Pettygrove meeting space for all three days of the festival this year.
The Hyatt Centric is also the 2026 Bigfoot Poetry Festival host hotel (more info here), and their first floor restaurant, the Wanderlust Kitchen & Bar, will be one of our two preliminary slam bout locations.
First Congregational United Church of Christ
1126 SW Park Ave.
We are back at the First Congregational United Church of Christ (the UCC) for our fifth festival in a row. Catch the Bigfoot Poetry Festival’s 2026 Finals Stage at the UCC on the park blocks the evening of Saturday, June 27th, where the top four teams will compete to find out who’ll be taking home first this year!
Fortune
614 sw 11th ave.
We are excited to collaborate with Fortune for the first time as one of our 2026 late night event venues! We’ll be at Fortune the night of Thursday, June 25th, for one or two open mics after the preliminary bouts for the day are over. These events will be shouted out via word of mouth (though you might get a hint if you head over to our schedule page). Fortune is donating their space to the 2026 Bigfoot Poetry Festival.
This venue is 21+.
Guilder Coffee
1035 W Burnside St.
The Bigfoot Poetry Festival is overjoyed to be returning once again to Guilder Coffee for our Welcome Open Mic the night of June 24th. Nestled on the first floor of the downtown Powell’s Books, the Welcome Mic is offered as a place for poets who come to town a day early to meet, mingle, and begin the poetic reveries. Guilder is donating their space to our festival.
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St.
We’re so excited to partner with Kelly’s Olympian for a special “IYKYK” festival event! This event will be happening late night on Friday, June 26th. What is the event you might ask? Check in with some of our registered poets, volunteers, or organizers to get the skinny on what may or may not be happening that night!
This venue is 21+.
Multnomah County
Central Library
801 SW 10th Ave.
We are excited to be returning to the Multnomah County Central Library for our fourth time. The Central Library is once again opening their doors for us to host poetry open mics for all three days of the festival up on their third floor in the Collins Gallery. All events at the downtown library will be part of our affinity-themed poetry open mics.
Portland Center STage
128 NW 11th Ave.
We will be at Portland Center Stage this year on the morning of June 27th for both our Poetry Market and our Youth Poetry Slam. These two events will be taking place up on their second level mezzanine. Come check out chapbooks, broadsides, stickers, and more for purchase and then stick around to cheer on some student poets!
Powell’s City of Books
1035 W Burnside St.
Powell’s Books, for a fifth time, will be donating space to the Bigfoot Poetry Festival for our poetry slam tournament. This space will serve as one of our two venues hosting preliminary bouts. Happening the first two nights of the competition, we will see two slams take place here each evening.
Powell’s is also generously donating a $50 gift card to the festival, which will be a first place prize for the winner of our Youth Poetry Slam the morning of June 27th.
Wanderlust
Kitchen & Bar
601 SW 11th Ave.
We are so excited to be partnering with the Wanderlust Kitchen & Bar this year! While this is our first year working directly with the Wanderlust, poets and attendees will recognize the space, seeing as we were there for our poetry slam tournament last year (when it operated as Covet.PDX). Wanderlust Kitchen & Bar is generously donating space to us for both nights.
This space will serve as one of our two venues hosting preliminary bouts of our poetry tournament. Happening the first two nights of the competition, we will see two slams take place here each evening.
Backwoods Brewing
231 NW 11th Ave.
We are excited to be partnering with Backwoods Brewing Company for the first time this year! They are providing a 10% discount to poets and volunteers when they show their lanyard badges at the register of their NW 11th Ave. location.
Stop by to grab a bite to eat for lunch between open mics, or try a flight of beers before the poetry slams kick off in the evening! Open until 8:00pm on Wednesday & Thursday, and until 9:00pm on Friday & Saturday.
Boca Ardiente
We want to thank Boca Ardiente, a local poetry open mic for Spanish / Spanglish artists, for lending us multiple microphones, stands, and amps. This sound equipment will be used both nights at our preliminary bouts in Powell’s Books and the Wanderlust Kitchen & Bar, so that there will be enough on hand for teams performing group pieces. This is the second year in a row Boca Ardiente has helped us with sound equipment.
Boca Ardiente will be taking place on June 28th, the Sunday after Bigfoot, at Kilo D’Cofi. If you’re in Portland for an extra day and want to squeeze some more poetry into your time in the PNW, check their event out!!
Caffè Umbria
303 NW 12TH AVE.
We are excited to be partnering with Caffé Umbria for the first time this year! They are providing a 10% discount to poets and volunteers when they show their lanyard badges at the register of their NW 12th Ave. location.
Stop by and grab some coffee and a pastry before the poetry kicks off each day! Open from 7:00am - 6:00pm daily.
Portland Clean Air Committee
We want to thank the Portland Clean Air Committee (PCAC) for lending us several air purifiers to have stationed at venues this year. PCAC is a community run organization that seeks to reduce harm from respiratory illnesses and air pollution through education, advocacy, and providing air purifiers for local events. We are grateful to them for providing the Bigfoot Poetry Festival with air purifiers for this year's festival.
Stumptown Coffee Roasters
1140 SW Washington St.
We are partnering with Tender Loving Empire’s downtown location for a fourth time this year. They are providing a 10% discount to poets and volunteers when they show their lanyard badges at the register of their SW 10th Ave. location.
Tender Loving Empire
412 SW 10th Ave.
We are partnering with Tender Loving Empire’s downtown location for a fourth time this year. They are providing a 10% discount to poets and volunteers when they show their lanyard badges at the register of their SW 10th Ave. location. Open 11:00am - 7:00pm daily.
Tender Loving Empire is also donating select items to be used as first place prizes for
Yoga on yamhill
124 SW yamhill st.
Thank you so much to Yoga on Yamhill for partnering with us for a third year in a row! They will, once again, be lending us a handful of yoga mats for our out-of-town poets to use. Come through on Thursday morning at 9:00am for guided yoga and meditation, led by Tomi Simmons.