Upfront/LISTEN
Neighborhood Rock Party
Porchfests are a cheap and casual way to enjoy live music
LAST YEAR, I attended a concert at an unexpected venue: the front of a house in Franklin, Indiana.
The entertainment was a country rock outfit called Guns for Hire. The stage was a porch. Around me sat people on folding chairs or blankets, with others standing along the street. And this was just one of many shows that day, on stoops and lawns around this residential neighborhood, part of the town’s Porchober (a combination of “porch” and “October”).
Such casual, grassroots events are popping up across the U.S.—in places like Wenonah, New Jersey; Edmonds, Washington; and Athens, Georgia—and provide an enjoyable alternative for older music fans who might feel uncomfortable at a large music festival. The best part: Anyone is welcome at a Porchfest; you don’t have to live in the neighborhood to enjoy the music.
“As we get older, music festivals tend to be a little insane and crazy,” says Jim Atkinson, 63, singer and guitarist for the Boston–based Jim Atkinson Band. At a Porchfest, “it’s totally chill.”
A gathering in 2007 in Ithaca, New York, claims to be the first Porchfest. Now there are more than 250 such events annually throughout the United States. (For a list, go to porchfest.org/porchfests-elsewhere.)
The majority are free. Musicians mostly play for the exposure. “It’s all very low-key,” Atkinson says. “I think people are just excited to have a band on their lawn. It’s not every day they get to do that.” —Laura Kiniry