Photo by Sasha Aleiner

Last year, West Philly witnessed its very first Porchfest, a concept that was introduced into the neighborhood by musicians Owen Lyman-Schmidt and Ross Hoffman (Liana Moskowitz, Abram Taber and Bobby Szafranski also helped organize last year’s festival). This year, Lyman-Schmidt and Hoffman are joined by new organizers, and West Philly Porchfest (WPPF) is back for year two.

New organizers include Carmen Greenwood, Morgan Melissa Robinson, and Ciara Chaly.

“I think it was a really wonderful sort of proof of concept that we could bring this to West Philly and it was embraced so quickly within the first year. I wouldn’t want to say that we were surprised at the turnout, but it was certainly validating to have seen it somewhere else and think this could work in our community and then have folks agree with us,” said co-organizer Lyman-Schmidt. 

Porchfest began in upstate New York in Ithaca a little under 10 years ago and is still ongoing. However, this one is modeled after the Somerville Porchfest right outside of Boston.

Photo by Ross Hoffman

The idea is simple: to bring bands and performers out of basements and onto their porches in a decentralized fashion. Porches sign up with WPPF organizers to put their porch on the map while booking acts is left up to each porch. What role does WPPF play in organizing these porches? Well, everyone that’s been to a show or booked a show knows that turnout can be an issue, especially when the musicians haven’t garnered a following yet.

This is where WPPF organizers come in with suggested guidelines: Porches south of Baltimore Ave are asked to schedule performers between noon and 2 p.m., north of Baltimore Ave and east of 48th street between 2-4 p.m. and north of Baltimore Ave and west of 48th street between the hours of 4-6 p.m. These guidelines are meant to keep the audience density within the radius of a few blocks.

Not much will change from last year’s format, but you should expect to see more printed maps. “We were stuck racing around trying to replenish them [the maps]” said Lyman-Schmidt in reference to last year’s event, since some map drop-off locations ran out of maps almost halfway through the day.

Interested in attending West Philly Porchfest? Then mark your calendars for Saturday, June 3. Check the official WPPF website for more information.

– Rana Fayez