The 9th Annual West Philly Porch Fest Takes Place This May With 400+ Free Shows Across 190+ Porches

The west West Philly Porch Festival first began back in 2016 by by five neighborhood residents “Most of which had recently participated in the Somerville, MA Porchfest and thought it seemed like the perfect fit for West Philly (we have better porches for sure),” organizers stated. The inaugural Porchfest included 75 acts playing shows at over 30 porches. Each year the festival has grown significantly. 2019’s Porchfest featured over 175 acts on nearly 100 porches.

Fastforward to today and the West Philly Porch Fest now offers over 400 free shows on 190+ resident’s porches throughout the neighborhood. This year’s West Philly Porch Fest will take place on Saturday May 31st with acts throughout the day.

The official boundaries of the event are the Schuylkill River and the City Line, but most past Porchfest shows were on porches within a mile of the intersection of 48th St and Baltimore Ave, in the residential neighborhoods of Cedar Park, Spruce Hill, Squirrel Hill and Walnut Hill.

For those not familiar, Porchfest allows residents to use their porches to host musicians to perform. Featured artists will include musicians of various genres playing free shows on porches throughout the neighborhood. Curated by West Philadelphia residents, the festival seeks to represent and celebrate the community’s broad musical and cultural diversity.

The idea originally started in Ithaca, NY back in 2007, Porchfest was created “to build, deepen and celebrate connections within our culturally diverse community by creating a platform for sharing the joys of live music.”  Since its inception Porchfest has spread to over 100 cities throughout the U.S and Canada.

Although no acts or schedules have been officially posted, the date for this year’s festival has been set with announcements to be made leading up to the festival. However, interested musicians and porch hosts can now reach out to organizers during their upcoming open registration. “Our first flyering event will be March 22 & 23. Reach out if you’d like to help canvas the neighborhood to announce open registration. Lastly, on May 29 & 30 we could use help distributing posters and maps to all the porch hosts. We do also need help tabling at Clark Park the night before and morning of West Philly Porchfest,” Organizers state.

“This year, as always, we are asking porch hosts to be mindful of their neighbors as they plan their events. Before registering, please communicate and coordinate with your neighbors. We are happy to work through possible arrangements if there are conflicts. Porches and cafes that tend to draw larger crowds have the potential to drown out smaller shows. Please consider the impact your show might have on people on your street and potentially even other blocks.
We are asking porch hosts to stick closer to the neighborhood time windows. South of Baltimore from 12-230, north of Baltimore but east of 48th from 2-430, north of Baltimore and west of 48th from 330-6. This way we can organize the crowd flow better. Hopefully, this mitigates the impact on non participating neighbors,” West Philly Porch Fest oranizers added.

Aside from the various shows, this year’s Official After Porchy Party will be held at Pentridge Station starting at 6pm. “We cannot wait to celebrate the 9th West Philly Porchfest with the best neighbors in the multiverse! Last year, we were interviewed by a researcher in Ithaca writing on Porchfest globally. While several Porchfests have much larger crowds, no Porchfest had even half the participants we have, north of 420 acts over 195 plus porches. Let’s keep it going”