Spotted In Portland: GZA at evo Opening Party in SE Portland

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Byron Beck, GoLocalPDX Features Editor

GZA

GZA at evo Portland's Grand Opening Party.

Evo—an action sports and fashion apparel retailer from Seattle—celebrated the opening of its first Portland retail store with a HUGE party with more than 1000 evo fans who came to check out the cool space, plus drink, eat, dance and...drum roll, please...check out who was the "surprise musical guest."

That musical guest was none other than hip hop artist GZA, one of the original members of the Wu-Tung Clan. The crowd went off when he took the stage - his appearance was kept top secret until that moment!

The musical headliner was sure to be big. Evo's track record of performers at other parties have included such diverse artists as Common Market, Snow Patrol and Talib Kweli, who closed out the first anniversary of evo's Seattle shop. The party-goers also got to meet a number of evo athletes, including Sammy Carlson, Wiley Miller and Kimmy Fasani. Also in attendance was evo founder—and Oregon native—Bryce Phillips, a former K-2 sponsored skier.

The party raised more than $7,000 for The Chill Foundation, an organization that uses board sports to motivate and challenge youth to accomplish goals.