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Heart of the Rogue Festival draws a crowd to downtown Medford By Nick Morgan Updated: Oct 15, 2022 05:47 PM A A 5 View all photos Brothers Owen, 12, and Finn, 7, play an oversize game of Jenga on Saturday inside the Blossom Lounge at Pear Blossom Park as part of the Heart of the Rogue festival Saturday in downtown Medford. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] The Brothers Reed were among the four local headliners who performed at Medford’s first Heart of the Rogue Festival in Pear Blossom Park in downtown Medford. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Lindsay Lion Matthews Freedom, 2, looks through a bag of freebies during Medford’s first Heart of the Rogue Festival Saturday downtown . [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Pedestrians make their way through Medford’s Heart of the Rogue Festival Saturday in Pear Blossom Park. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Stephanie and David de Villeneuve scoop free ice cream cones Saturday at Pear Blossom Park as part of Medford’s first Heart of the Rogue festival Saturday. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] With events appealing to everyone from music fans to marathon runners, Medford’s very first Heart of the Rogue Festival cast a wide net and drew a crowd this weekend to downtown Medford. The combination of four headlining local live bands on the Pear Blossom Park stage with the Rogue Marathon and Bikes ‘N Brews were among the major draws, but for Angela Wood, Travel Medford’s director of sales and sports development and one of the festival’s co-organizers, the heart of the event was the talented locals and nearly 100 vendors — many of them artisan and gourmet food vendors and all of them based in the Rogue Valley — showcasing the best Southern Oregon has to offer. “Everything here is a celebration of the Rogue Valley,” Wood said Saturday. Popular local live act The Rogue Suspects set the mood Friday evening with high-energy renditions of jukebox earworms such as “It’s Raining Men” and “Love Shack,” gourmet food vendors such as Travelers Ice Cream of Central Point dished out scoops in flavors such as pear and fennel and honey cornbread, while street musicians outside the park carved out space along Sixth Street. More than 400 marathon runners and hundreds of cyclists finished their races Saturday morning alongside the Lithia Motors headquarters building, according to Wood. She said it was too early to estimate crowd turnout or attendance numbers for either day of the free live music event at Pear Blossom Park, but she said she was pleased with the crowd she saw for local folk act The Brothers Reed shortly after noon Saturday. “For our first year, we are so pleased,” Wood said. She said things started slow Friday, but by the time night fell, the lights came on for their unique Blossom Lounge gathering space on the Pear Blossom Park lawn. “It was magical,” Wood said. “There were so many people having so much fun.” The attraction she hopes will help the festival become a Medford tradition is the Blossom Lounge, which featured sofas and chairs, lawn games such as cornhole and stylish outdoor decorations. “We wanted it to feel homey and comfortable and cool,” Wood said. “We think this is one of those features that people are going to want to return to.” The festival started with a challenge from the city roughly three years ago to create more events downtown. The first idea was a harvest festival as a second “shoulder-season event” complementing Pear Blossom in the spring. Travel Medford formed partnerships with organizations such as the Rogue Marathon, and footed the bill for changing the marathon’s route from its former end at the Jackson County Expo. “They’re a Boston qualifier, so it has to be exact,” Wood said. Travel Medford’s partnered with The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon and Jackson County Library Services for the festival’s kids activities and Rogue Valley Vintners and Rogue Valley Wine Country to create a “Wine Country Lane” space for grownups, but Wood said their most important partner devising the event was the city of Medford. City staff helped at every turn planning details, from traffic control during the marathon to police resources for the festival, she said. “They are one of the big reasons this is such a success,” Wood said. Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.