Eugene Weekly

05/30/2026

Tea enthusiasts, mark your calendars for the fourth annual Eugene Tea Festival, Sunday, May 31 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Farmer’s Market Pavilion and Plaza. More than 50 different vendors will provide complimentary samples of unique teas, such as mulberry, boba tea, kombucha, Taiwanese oolong and teas from Nepal, China and South Korea. Even if you don’t drink tea, you’ll be able to find something you enjoy from the diverse selection of flavors at the festival. As Madelaine Au, the tea festival’s executive director says, “If you say that you’re not a tea drinker, you haven’t tried everything.” The festival not only offers tea samples, but also tea circles — which are educational and interactive experiences in which groups gather for a tea meditation and discuss the tea they are drinking. In addition to tea, you can grab a bite to eat from food vendors, peruse eclectic works from numerous art vendors and try on alpaca wool products from fair trade clothing vendor Chasqui.

Tea enthusiasts, mark your calendars for the fourth annual Eugene Tea Festival, Sunday, May 31. More than 50 different vendors will provide complimentary samples of unique teas, such as mulberry…

05/30/2026

Next up in Best of Eugene Eats we have: Best Local Wine!

1.Sweet Cheeks Winery, 27007 Briggs Hill Rd., 541-349-9463, SweetCheeksWinery.com.

2. Sarver Winery, 25600 Mayola Lane, 541-935-2979, SarverWinery.com.

3. King Estate Winery, 80854 Territorial Hwy., 541-942-9874, KingEstate.com.

05/30/2026

Kommuna Lux, a lively folk music ensemble from Odesa, Ukraine, performs 7:30pm May 30 at Unity of the Valley on a West Coast U.S. tour, raising funds for direct aid in the country through their nonprofit KMLX. The conservatory-trained musicians focus on acoustic traditions, blending Eastern and Central European folk music jazz and klezmer, which is celebratory Ashkenazi Jewish music of Central and Eastern Europe. Still, with instruments such as clarinet, trumpet, trombone, percussion and voice, the band holds a similar irreverent sensibility and showmanship to Balkan punk bands like Gogol Bo****lo. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Kommuna Lux stood at a crossroads. Some members left to join the fight, while those remaining decided their place was sharing their cultural heritage on stage. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. The show is all ages.

Read more in Eugene Weekly’s What’s Happening Calendar!

High-energy Ukrainian folk band Kommuna Lux performs in Eugene

05/29/2026

Live a little and laugh a lot at the upcoming Bleepin’ Funny comedy benefit show, to fundraise for Tsunami Books’ efforts to purchase its building after three decades of paying rent. On Saturday, May 30 at 5 pm, Bleepin’ Funny is a relatively family-friendly comedy and improv show, where all performances are by donation only and benefit causes around Eugene. Comics “bleep” themselves so kids can come, but everyone can still enjoy the humor. With 10 different comedians ready to perform on Saturday, viewers are not only going to get a good laugh, but they’re also directly supporting the folks of Tsunami Books and their efforts to purchase their storefront. Admission is by donation.

Read more in Eugene Weekly’s What’s Happening Calendar!

Bleepin’ Funny brings a comedic performance to benefit Tsunami’s efforts to purchase its building

05/29/2026

Cascadia Democratic Action, a nonviolent movement whose ultimate goal is to achieve an independent democratic bioregion, announced on the eve of Cascadia Day, May 18 that it’s time to open the conversation of increased autonomy, including secession — withdrawing the Cascadia bioregion from the U.S. CDA says it wants autonomy because the federal government is failing to prevent systemic abuse and is rapidly descending into fascism.

Hugh Spitzer, a retired University of Washington School of Law professor says while it would be a difficult task, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” He adds that federal approval for secession could come in the form of a constitutional amendment, a statue or even a treaty.

Read more online on EugeneWeekly.com.

Cascadia Democratic Action hopes for autonomy from the United States

05/29/2026

We’re continuing to post the Best of Eugene Eats winners this week. Next up: Best Bar

1. Jackalope Lounge, 453 Willamette St., 541-485-1519, JackalopeLounge.com.

2. Party Bar, 55 W. Broadway, 541-345-8228, PartyEugene.com.

3. Izakaya Meiji Co., 345 Van Buren St., 541-505-8804, IzakayaMeiji.com.

Interested in taking part this year? Check out our Best of Eugene page for more info! https://bestofeugene.com/2026/01/how-to-get-nominated/

05/29/2026

Retail giant Costco appears intent on expanding its hemmed-in Eugene store, but details remain sketchy.

This we know: The company last August paid $6 million to a real estate investment group for the Chad Drive property that housed Office Depot, the deed shows. The property is across Chad from the Costco store.
Atlas Holdings, the private company that owns the Office Depot and OfficeMax chains, earlier this month closed the Chad Drive store.

That leaves Costco with an empty 25,000-square-foot building with about 1.5 acres of parking holding about 140 parking spaces.

This is what we don’t know: Costco’s intentions.

Read the rest in Eugene Weekly’s Bricks $ Mortar.

Retail giant Costco appears intent on expanding its hemmed-in Eugene store, but details remain sketchy. This we know: The company last August paid $6 million to a real estate investment group for the…

05/29/2026

When you enter the Miller Theatre Complex at the University of Oregon to see Los Dreamers, what will first catch your eye are some beautiful posters of a pre-conquest Indigenous woman clutching a bouquet of multi-colored corn and flowers while monarch butterflies hover nearby.

When you’re seated and the play begins, you’ll see an empty stage backed by a rosy sky that changes color periodically to indicate the time of day. Then pieces of a set slowly enter as if by magic.

A young woman named Penelope, but usually called Scoobi, is in the process of arranging a marriage of convenience with a blond American named Dylan. Scoobi was born in Mexico but has lived in the U.S. much of her life. She is now in law school, and paying an American to marry her will greatly increase her chances of avoiding capture by ICE.

This romantic, political comedy by Mónica Sánchez, a playwright based in New Mexico, caught the attention of Malek Najjar, a professor in the UO Theatre Arts department. Working closely with the author, he has mounted the first fully staged production of the script.

The play runs through June 7. Read the review and get showtimes in Eugene Weekly.

When you enter the Miller Theatre Complex at the University of Oregon to see Los Dreamers, what will first catch your eye are some beautiful posters of a pre-conquest Indigenous woman clutching a…

05/29/2026

Ninety-seven years ago, on Nov. 15, 1929, a movie called Ed’s Coed opened at the McDonald Theatre in downtown Eugene. Back then, it still played movies, and it was the biggest, most luxurious theater in town. Tickets were $1.25, which is worth about $24.34 today, and that got you into the movie. Before the film was a live cabaret set, music, dance numbers and a few words from the University of Oregon president, Eugene’s mayor and Oregon’s governor. The movie was silent, and UO music professor Brian McWhorter says there likely would have been an orchestra there to play the score to the sold-out crowd.

Almost a century later, on June 3, Ed’s Coed is playing again, this time in Straub Hall room 156, the largest, most luxurious (if you could call it that) lecture hall at the UO.

Ed’s Coed, made by students in 1929, plays again with a live band at the UO June 3