PLEASE NOTE this dance is NOT INCLUDED in the Full Weekend Pass or the Party Pass.

Portland’s longest-running swing dance moonlights as the kick-off party for PDXLX 2026!

The Minidoka Swing Band remembers the Japanese Americans who were interned behind barbed wire during WWII with big band sounds from the 1930’s, 1940’s and beyond. The band’s name comes from the Minidoka Internment Camp near Twin Falls, Idaho, one of ten major camps where Japanese Americans from Portland and Washington State were imprisoned by the U.S. government without due process. To give a sense of normalcy to the lives of the teenagers and young adults, the camps often held Saturday night dances to make the best of a horrific situation.

To celebrate the kick-off of PDXLX, we’ll also feature a FREE dance contest and a FREE taster lesson in addition to our standard Foundations Lesson.

Schedule

6:00 PM Doors open for check-in, bar will be
6:45 - 7:45 PM Upstairs Ballroom Lindy Hop Foundations Lesson
Downstairs Ballroom Taster Lesson TBD!
8:00 - 10:30 PM Minidoka Swing Band
Set break DJ
Dance Contest details TBD!