A hyperlocal movement has spread across countries and continents to bring people out of their homes and connect with their neighbors over music.
Alex Estrada, performing as That Fool Al, invites a young girl to perform with hiim at a Porch Fest in California. (Credit: Griffin Mancuso)
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Sunny Brae is a normally quiet, suburban neighborhood. There is no concert hall or arena or even a small theater there. Still, one day in October, this community in Humboldt County in the U.S. state of California played host to a vibrant music festival featuring 50 performers.
The venues? Amps, mics, keyboards and drum sets in front yards of 16 different houses. People sat in folding chairs, sofas brought out from living rooms and lawn chairs pulled out of garages.
Porch Fest began in 2007 in the town of Ithaca in the U.S. state of New York when, inspired by people playing ukulele outdoors, residents Gretchen Hildreth and Lesley Greene gathered 20 bands to perform on porches, yards and driveways in a free community event. Since then, there have been more than 225 porch festivals in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Alexus Roberts (left), lead singer of local alternative band Queen Karma, belts into the mic while Gavin Kingsley (right) plays drums at the Sunny Brae Porch Fest. (Credit: Griffin Mancuso)
The sounds of experimental electronic, alternative rock, folk, punk, hip hop and other genres filled the air. The event was sponsored by a local community-run radio station and theater and funded by an artists collective through a county hotel occupancy tax.
Josephine Archibald attended the Sunny Brae Porch Fest with her partner, Brian Buchanan, and their children. They previously lived in Ithaca and attended a Porch Fest there.
“It’s so accessible, it’s in a neighborhood,” Archibald said. “Even if you haven’t heard of it, if you live in the neighborhood, you can just walk there.”
Nac Wallace performs under the stage name Nac One to a crowd of dozens at the Sunny Brae Porch Fest. (Credit Griffin Mancuso)
Humboldt native Ginkgo Torquemada has been living in Sunny Brae for the last couple months and is a DJ for Humboldt Hot Air, the community radio station that helped organize the event.
“People just deserve to have art and music, and there shouldn’t always be a monetary reason for doing something,” Torquemada said. “We’re doing this because we want community, and we want people to get to experience music and the coalescing of that.”
Shiny Eyes, an experimental electronic group made up of Sean Powers and Robert Tripp, performed through light rain with turntables, cassette tapes, a keyboard synthesizer, a modular synthesizer and a filtered microphone. They have been making music together for the last 30 years, and the level of trust in one another allows them to fully improvise their sets.
“I think it takes time to gel with each other,” Powers said. “Especially people that have been playing music for a long time, when they get together, there’s not like an ego going on … you allow that to happen, then you fit together eventually.”
Sean Powers (left) and Robert Tripp (middle) create improvisational, ambient music for a backyard audience with a guest violinist. (Credit: Griffin Mancuso)
The Pan Dulce Steel Orchestra drew a large crowd as the sun started to peer through the clouds. They performed a set of cheerful, melodic songs on Trinidadian steel drums and 55-gallon oil barrels, with a classic drum set in the back. One of the founders and directors of Pan Arts, Kate Lang-Salazar, enjoyed the casual atmosphere of the event and saw Porch Fest as an opportunity for newer artists.
“I would love to see my son’s band get an opportunity,” Lang Salazar said. “I could see this being a good venue for him, especially [for] people starting out and trying to find their footing as performers. And it’s a real treat for the community, I would think, to have a bunch of artists descend upon their neighborhood.”
Musicians play Trinidadian steel drums in a front yard at the Sunny Brae Porch Fest in Arcata, California, 12 October 2024. (Credit: Griffin Mancuso)
Neroli Devaney, Humboldt Hot Air’s director, hosted several bands in her backyard. She had previously heard of Porch Fest and decided Sunny Brae would be a perfect location.
“Getting to know your neighbors and being encouraged to go hang out in your neighbor’s yard is not a thing that usually happens,” Devaney said. “So it’s just a moment for people to come out and be like, ‘Hey, I live next to you. This is cool that you’re doing this.’”
While there was some chaos during the organizing phase, Devaney felt that the event was a huge success and they met all of their goals. She hopes to host another Porch Fest next year, and potentially expand it beyond Sunny Brae.
“It is something that the community really wants, and that was really shown today, and that’s really beautiful,” Devaney said. “Both attendees and performers were having so much fun. And I think that it is really valuable to have events like this that are free … it felt so community-integrated, because it’s people who live here, hosting other people who live here, to perform for other people who live here.”
Griffin Mancuso is a freelance journalist based in Eureka, California. He has published work in other local publications like the North Coast Journal and The Lumberjack student newspaper. He also produces social media content for the Humboldt chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans.