Boring & Dull Day returns Aug. 9 with yawn-inducing celebration

Published 5:00 am Friday, July 25, 2025

A yawn-inducing celebration returns next month on the most boring day of the year, marking an international apathetic celebration of two lackluster communities.

Boring & Dull Day returns on Saturday, August 9. The local event will take place from 4:45-8:30 p.m. at Boring Station Trailhead Park, located at 28008 Keller Road. The day marks the partnership between Boring, Oregon, and Dull, Scotland, based largely on their less-than-glamorous names.

There is plenty of fun to be had.

The “second-shortest” parade in Oregon will begin at 4:45 p.m. The Bland Marshal this year is Les Otto, former chair of the Boring Community Planning Organization and former Boring Fire District board president.

The Ice Cream Social will take place at 5 p.m. Scottish Pipes and Drums, along with Ron Ruedi and the Hurricanes, will both perform. Frozen treats will be served by members of the Sandy VFW, Sandy Rotary Club, Hollyview Church, Country Cutups Square Dance Club and Sandy Action Center. The ice cream and entertainment are free.

Food will also be available for purchase from the Boring Oregon Foundation Snack Shack and Bradda T’s Hawaiian Cuisine.

Largest-ever raffle

This year features the largest raffle in support of the Boring, Oregon Foundation. Proceeds will be used to buy property for a community center for the greater Boring area.

“We are so excited about this year’s raffle,” said Steve Bates, acting president. “This by far is the best raffle we have had in our 13-year raffle history.”

There are 46 prizes available. The grand prize is a $1,000 gift card to Rolli’s Auto Detail. The second prize is an adventure for four to Great Wolf Lodge. Third is a Les Schwab Auto Car Package valued at $644.

The organizers will print 750 raffle tickets, meaning there is a 1 in 16 chance of winning. Tickets are $10 each. They can be purchased at: Boring Square Garden Center; Boring Shell; Clackamas County Bank – Boring; Mt. View Golf Course; Homestead Barber Shop; Fresh Looks Studio; Geren’s Farm Supply; Lorien Guitar Store; Timber Pub & Grub; Burns Feed Store; Rolli’s Auto Detail; and Boring Bark.

“Pair for the Ages”

The international “Pair for the Ages” and annual celebration was immortalized every Aug. 9 after then-Gov. John Kitzhaber signed House Bill 2352 into law in 2013.

That makes Boring the only community in the state that has its own holiday with Boring & Dull Day.

Boring has always gotten recognition for its unusual name. So has Dull, an even tinier town north of Glasgow. Boring is named after William H. Boring, a Civil War veteran with the Union Army, who settled in the area in 1874. Dull derives its name from the Pictish word “dol,” meaning “water-meadow.” It could also be cognate with the Gaelic “dail” meaning meadow.

Elizabeth Leighton, a Scot, first proposed the pairing while passing through the area on vacation to Mount Hood.

The duo leaned into their funny names to create the fun annual outing — Dull gathers in October. The pair also partners with Bland, New South Wales, Australia, to form the “League of Extraordinary Communities” or “Trinity of Tedium.”

Dull is in the picturesque Scottish Highlands. It has a single street of houses on the north valley incline of the River Tay. A parish church was founded by St Adomnán, Abbot of Iona, in the 7th/8th century. After a decline for much of the 20th century, marked by the closure of both the church and school, the small village has experienced the construction of several new homes and the restoration of older buildings in the 21st century.