National Night Out is a loose organization of many different "outings" across America's neighborhoods, advertised as "an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live". We've become a neighborhood tradition at Bridlemile -- this will be our twelfth year at the picnic. In several prior years we've met Senator Ron Wyden or his staff at this event - let's see if we get lucky again!

Uniform:   INFORMAL uniform: TBGO polo shirt, TBGO hat, black SHORTS/belt, WHITE socks, WHITE shoes.

Meet:   At 6:00 PM at Hamilton Park, along SW Hamilton St between SW Shattuck Rd and SW Dosch Rd. See map and/or click here for directions. The event takes place in the part of Hamilton Park behind Bridlemile Elementary School, 4300 SW 47th Dr (see satellite detail). We should play around 6:30, depending on when the crowd arrives.

Parking:  Plenty of on-street parking available near the event.

Food:   Feel free to bring dinner and picnic in the park if you like. Otherwise, there's generally a sizable cadre of band folk heading off to find dinner somewhere - ask around!

Show Music:

Under Pressure

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Five O'Clock World

My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (guard feature)

Hot Stuff (dance feature)

California Dreamin'

Shut Up and Dance

It Don't Mean a Thing

We Like to Party

Carry On Wayward Son

Beatles Medley

Bang Bang (twirler feature)

Faith

Fireball

Sweet Caroline

We Got the Beat

SMALL BAND EVENT:   At the request of the client, we are restricting TBGO attendance at this event. Please do not attend unless you know you are on the attendee list.

Plan of the Day:   The PDX Adult Soapbox Derby is a return to those halcyon days of childhood when strapping yourself into a home-built racer and tearing down the side of a volcano still seemed like a good idea. This year TBGO has the honor of marching down the Mt. Tabor track at intermission.

Uniform:   INFORMAL uniform: TBGO polo shirt, TBGO hat, black SHORTS/belt, WHITE socks, WHITE shoes.

Event Location:  The event takes place at Mt Tabor Park (map and directions). DO NOT DRIVE DIRECTLY TO MT TABOR PARK. Parking at Mt Tabor Park for the Derby is EXTREMELY LIMITED. We have parking passes for only 6 cars, so we need to park elsewhere, combine (carpool) into a few cars, and shuttle to Mt Tabor Park.

Park, Meet, Shuttle:  

• Meet NO LATER THAN 12:30 pm at East Burnside Plaza at the corner of E Burnside and SE 55th Ave (map and directions). If you're late you'll be left behind!
• If you have a large vehicle that can hold 3-4 people plus their instruments AND are willing to be one of our shuttle vehicles, park in the shopping center lot on the SE 55th Ave side away from the stores.
• All others please find neighborhood street parking (so that we're not leaving a lot of cars in the lot) and walk to the shopping center lot.
• As people arrive we will use our shuttle vehicles to divide up into carpools and head for Mt. Tabor Park. Drive east on Burnside, turn right (south) on SE 60th Ave, then left on SE Salmon St to the park entrance (see arrows on map). Expected arrival time is about 1:00.
• The gate attendant will give you a parking pass. Continue ahead into the park.
• When you reach the reservoir area, follow the switchback onto SE Salmon Way. Drive to Visitor Center Parking and park. Find your way on foot to the nearby START area (green flag on map).
• At intermission (some time between 1:45 and 2:15) we form up and march down the track (about 7/8 mile).
• At the finish of the march, drivers can catch an ATV shuttle back up to Visitor Center Parking. After reaching your car, drive back to the finish line area, collect the rest of your carpool, and drive back to East Burnside Plaza.

Contacts:

• Alex Streeter - Primary Email Contact
• Aaron Foster - Race Director
• David Paulsen - President

Parade Music:

1. Dancing in the Street
2. Fireball
3. Beatles Medley
4. Venus

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR DAYS AT THE STATE FAIR

Based on your enthusiastic response, we're headed back to perform at the 2026 Oregon State Fair in Salem. Now it's time to get our act together! Dates are Friday August 28 through Monday September 7. This includes two weekends (plus a preceding Friday), the weekdays in between, and finishes up on Labor Day. You can use the link in the red box above to sign up for your days at the Fair, or read the details and THEN sign up!

Performance Information

We are signed up for two "mini-parades" each day for all 11 days of the Fair, with a third mini-parade on weekends and Labor Day. Each mini-parade lasts about 30 minutes and includes a parade through the Fairgrounds (roughly 1/2 mile) plus stops along the way for a few standstill tunes. Mini-parades are scheduled for 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm each day, with an additional early parade at 4:30 pm on weekends and Labor Day. When requested by Fair personnel, we march through the LB Day Amphitheater for the concert crowd; on those days we may move the 6:00 parade to 6:40 to align with the Amphitheater schedule. On-the-fly changes are possible as in prior years. Lights are encouraged for the 9:00 parade.

We've found that "the hardest part of the gig" is waiting around between parades, so we are scheduled for a 30 minute stage show each day except Sundays on the Spirit of Oregon Stage from 7:45-8:15 pm. NOTE: I am verifying this schedule. BRING LIGHTS TO READ YOUR MUSIC, it gets dark.

Summarizing:

• Mondays through Fridays:  Parade at 6:00, show at 7:45, parade at 9:00
• Saturdays, Labor Day:  Parades at 4:30 and 6:00, show at 7:45, parade at 9:00
• Sundays:  Parades at 4:30, 6:00, and 9:00
• NOTE: TIMES STILL SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Note that Exposition Center Map is oriented with North toward the upper left.

Call Time

Call time varies depending on whether you have already performed at the Fair. This helps take into account whether you are familiar with the drive, our meeting area, etc:

• On YOUR FIRST DAY AT THE FAIR, call time is 1 HOUR before the first performance of the day. That gives you enough extra time to guess wrong about traffic, park in the wrong place, have a hard time finding the meet-up point, etc, etc.
• On YOUR SECOND AND SUBSEQUENT days, call time is 40 MINUTES before the first performance of the day. Do be aware that traffic each day will vary (even near the Fairgrounds), so don't cut things too close!

Be aware that rush hour traffic on I-5 and OR-217 has been brutal in past years, and current road construction on 217 has made things even worse. Leave plenty of time for your commute.

Uniform

Informal Uniform: TBGO collared polo shirt, black shorts/belt, white socks/shoes, TBGO cap.

For the evening parade (9:00 pm) we like to decorate with . Since the Fair is celebrating America 250, we have purchased red-white-and-blue flashing fedoras, perfect for the evening parade. See Janet if you'd like one.

Performances and Music Lists

Beginning from just inside the Red Gate, we will follow a parade route within the Fairgrounds (see Parade Route map at right or below for a sample route; each one is a bit different). The route as shown is approximately 1/2 mile. We will stop periodically for a standstill tune or two. Likely "stop and play" locations are at the Tap House, near the LB Day Amphitheater, and near the big Ferris Wheel, but we've played pretty much everywhere. At the 6:00 parade we may finish by parading through the LB Day Amphitheater concourse at about 6:30.

On every performance day except Sundays, we are playing a 30-minute show at the Spirit of Oregon stage beginning at 7:45 pm. Please be at the stage ready to play no later than 7:30 pm.

If you are staying in Salem during the week: Please take ALL your music with you to Salem (not just the tunes listed below) in case we need to switch music during the week!

Sample Parade Route

MUSIC FOR MINI-PARADES
(recommend memorizing as much as you can to make your life easier!):

1. National Anthem March
2. Fireball
3. Uptown Funk
4. Venus

PARADE STANDSTILL MUSIC
(for using during parade stops)

THIS LIST STILL TENTATIVE

Back in Black

Bad Romance

Bang Bang

Build Me Up, Buttercup

Confident

Dancing in the Street

Five O'Clock World

Hey Baby

Over Mountains and Valleys

Poker Face

Shut Up and Dance

Tribute to America

Veterans Salute

Walking on Sunshine

MUSIC FOR STAGE SHOW - SPIRIT OF OREGON STAGE

THIS LIST STILL TENTATIVE

Under Pressure

Ain't No Mountain High

Five O'Clock World

My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark

Hot Stuff

Beatles Medley

California Dreamin'

America the Beautiful

Carry On Wayward Son

Sweet Caroline

We Got the Beat

Entry

Walk across the street and enter at the Red Gate. If for some reason the Red Gate is not open, enter through the Jackman Long Building box office, which is to the right of the Red Gate. (See Exposition Center Map above and photo at right). If you have guests who need to purchase tickets they can do so at the box office.

The meet-up area for the band is just inside the Red Gate between the Jackman Long Building and Columbia Hall. If you enter via the Jackman Long box office, turn left and exit the building to hang out with the purple shirts. This is where we'll begin our parades.

Storage Space / Green Room

We have a reasonable amount of locked storage space available. This space can be used for storage of drum cases and flag/banner tubes and will be available for overnight storage of banners and flags as well as drums and tubas if you will be performing on subsequent days. We can also use this space to drop off instruments immediately after a performance and pick them up just before the next one. This includes smaller instruments as long as we have enough space.

Steve has the key to this room but will bestow it on a keymaster each day. The room is locked shortly after each performance and unlocked about 20 minutes before the next one. We do not have a specific place to "hang out" between shows. There are places all around the grounds to hang out (and you're encouraged to use any of them).

Alcohol and Marijuana

Our contract with the Oregon State Fair and Exposition Center includes the following Alcohol, Marijuana and Drug-Free Work Place clause:

Note that consumption of alcohol or marijuana while in uniform is prohibited. Under a strict reading, you could change out of uniform into "street clothes" between events, but my strong recommendation is "just don't mess with it". Head to the Oregon Dairywomen's ice cream for a swirl cone, sundae, or shake instead (yum!!!).

Other Things to Bring

"Fair experts" suggest that you may want to bring some wet wipes, hand gel, or other way to clean up and avoid ingesting whatever is floating around that you don't want to have with dinner. You may also want to bring a small flashlight (or use the flashlight in your phone) to make it easier to return to your car at night.

Signup for the Fair

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR DAYS AT THE STATE FAIR

Parking and fair admission are included in our contract, so your only expense is transportation and any food/drink you choose to consume at the Fair. Carpooling is encouraged. Auxiliary units and support staff (for flags and banners) are both included and desirable.

The Fair is a big commitment for the band, but the rewards are substantial and those who played in prior years said it was a lot of fun. Besides excellent exposure, the Fair almost doubles our performance income for the year. We don't necessarily need 60 in the block for every performance, but we DO need to be sure we have 30+ in the block plus auxiliaries, including enough of everything to make a balanced band. Biggest worries will likely be lead trumpets, lead bones, drum line (same as always!). There's no upper limit on how many attendees we can have each day, so sign up on as many days as you can. The more, the merrier! Now we need to nail down your COMMITMENTS so that we can ensure we have a SOLID BAND EVERY DAY.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR DAYS AT THE STATE FAIR

Please read if you have a comcast.net email address

I continue to have issues sending TBGO email to Comcast email users. Delivery may be delayed or refused, and I cannot predict what will work and what won't. Evidently, Comcast is convinced that TBGO email is spam.

If you haven't been receiving email from me, I have a couple of suggestions:

• Complain to Comcast. I can't find a way to do this, but you may have better luck as a customer.
• I recommend that you obtain a free gmail account and set it to forward mail automatically to your Comcast email. Then let me know your new gmail account and I'll add it to the outgoing email lists. Evidence so far suggests this works okay.

Recruiting fliers:   The Recruiting Committee has created two new page-size PDFs for you to use to help build the band. One is a "general" flier, the other uses the 2026 Liverpool trip as a recruiting incentive. Feel free to print and hand out to friends, post on bulletin boards, etc.

In addition to the page-size PDFs, there are two smaller (1080x1080) images: a GIF and a PNG. The PNG is static, the GIF animates the band's URL. Both are a nice size for posting to your social media accounts.

Click the images below to open the fliers. You can also right-click the images and choose Save Link As to download to your device.

Long-Term Travel Plans

Major Road Trips

The Board talks with members informally to get travel ideas, and there's no shortage of fun things to do. We've built a long-term travel plan using these criteria:

• Take account of the "recurring themes" we hear when talking to band associates about travel opportunities.
• Target events with "cool factor". If we only get to do one a year, it oughta count!
• Emphasize trips that center around existing events with large, enthusiastic crowds. It's more fun to play for lots of people, and it's a lot easier to draw a crowd when someone else has already done all the work.
• Have a reasonable belief that it's a trip/event we can successfully execute.
• Target locations that are likely to have broad appeal to members as "destinations" - there should be fun, exciting touristy things we can do while we are in the area.
• Try to keep major events 9-15 months apart.
• Work to keep each trip affordable to the best of our ability.
• "Start spreading the news" - work on bringing the band to each major area of the country (and beyond).
• In general, avoid duplicating major trips that we've done previously - we ain't gettin' any younger and there are LOTS of places to go!
• Look beyond one year to put a multi-year plan in place. We think that a roadmap makes it easier for both the band staff and band associates to plan ahead, and it can also act as a recruiting tool.

Regional Trips and Mini-Trips

Besides our annual "big road trip", we make a conscious effort to broaden our reach in regional events. This will certainly include day trips, but we'd also love to add one or two "mini-trips" each year if the band can support it. In general, we'd try to space mini-trips so that they don't fall right on top of a major trip (i.e., we'll try to create "breathing room" between trips as much as we can.) A mini-trip would typically be closer to home, include a 1-2 night hotel stay, and have lower cost. Examples of mini-trips that we've done include the Autumn Leaf Festival in Leavenworth (WA), Wenatchee Appleblossom Festival, Pendleton Round-Up, Medford Pear Blossom Festival, White Rock (BC) Sea Festival, and Rogers Santa Claus Parade (Vancouver, BC).

Active Travel Plan

In March 2023 the TBGO Board unveiled a new multi-year travel plan at a Zoom meeting, including both regional and major national/international trips through 2028. Here are several options for viewing the plan.

Click the cover slide at right for a video of the Zoom meeting presentation (runs 45:27).
Click the cover slide at right to download a self-running slide show with details of the plan and its trips. It may take a bit for the presentation to download since it's large (114 MB). Launch after it downloads and you can then advance through it using mouse, space bar, enter key, arrow keys, etc.
Click the cover slide at right for a PDF of the presentation. It loses the lovely animations and transitions, but you get all the text.
Click the grid at right for a one-page PDF summary of the plan.