Members of the neighborhood pull up chairs or pop a squat on the sidewalk to watch the performances during the Wallingford Porchfest on June 26, 2021.
This weekend marked Wallingford Porchfest, a live music event where artists performed throughout the neighborhood and attendees sat on front lawns, occupied spaces on the sidewalk, and surrounded parked cars in search of shade to shelter from the high temperatures seen this weekend.
Wallingford Porchfest is the brainchild of Josh Golden from the band Left Neglect, and was co-organized with bandmate Elisha Nottingham.
When Golden visited Ithaca, New York around 12 years ago, he heard music pouring from the porches of one of its neighborhoods. For a while, Golden sat on the idea, feeling there were lots of places and opportunities to play around Seattle. Then, during a band practice, neighbors and people from the park across the street began to stop by and listen, leading Golden to realize that people were interested in hearing live music in an accessible, community-based format.
David Bazan of Paperback performs during the Wallingford Porchfest on June 26, 2021.
“I think the purpose of Porchfest is just to connect the neighborhood, but also to give bands an outlet,” Golden said. “Basically, a place where they don’t have to ask to play or wait in line to play, but just to reach out and say, “Here’s a place you can play for free.’”
Porchfest began with calls to neighbors that play or appreciate music, asking for hosts to offer their porches for the event. The performing group was grown through word-of-mouth, which helped cultivate community involvement for the event.
“I think that it’s been really cool connecting with people again in a new way,” Nottingham said. “We’ve all been online for so long … that it starts to feel a little artificial. So I’m really excited to have this community feeling where people can come together, [and] it’s still in a safe way, because we’re all still outdoors. It’s kind of pretty magical how it all came together, and just how many people were interested and how the neighborhood really seems to have embraced it.”
The event ran from 12 to 8 p.m., with 21 artists playing throughout the day. However, regarding the talent, representation was a bit lacking at the event.
“Except for the people that approached us, it’s not a good cross-cultural representation, [and] it’s not super diverse,” Golden said. “There’s a lot of what I would call ‘white indie rock,’ which is unfortunate. But it’s also just how it started. I would expect that if we were to do it again next year — which is the hope if it goes well — there may be more representation.”
The lack of representation relates to funding limitations, as Golden described that asking artists to play for free is not considered appropriate. Rather, Porchfest was organized through much of Golden and Nottingham’s personal friends and connections in the Seattle music scene, along with volunteers that reached out.
UW student and artist Liv Victorino had the chance to debut some of her quarantine songwriting at the event and performed her EP “Sheer Force of Will” live for the first time.
“I’m pretty passionate about understanding what it is to be on the ground floor and being present in your geography rather than online,” Victorino said. “So I was really excited about this particular idea, because it’s just so local, and to get to know people in that sphere is really important.”
A group of friends sit on a blanket during the Wallingford Porchfest performances on June 26, 2021.
Carter Wilson, another artist who performed at Porchfest, shared that this was an opportunity to test-run some new work and improve his skills as an independent musician, such as setting up equipment and running sound checks.
The community roots of Porchfest were also a notable part of the event for Wilson.
“That’s what excites me,” Wilson said. “I always try to cut out the middleman if possible, especially for artists, because we can do so much just by organizing our own resources and not depending on a third party or external validator or money source to fund it for us. We can just do it ourselves.”
Aside from this, another benefit of the event was the chance to listen to and explore the work of local artists.
“Creating new fans is always a really big deal [for artists], and for a bunch of local bands this [is an] opportunity to interact with the general public on easy, cool, [and] safe terms,” Victorino said. “I just hope that people will follow up with the bands that they like and support, whoever it is.”
Reach writer Huma Ali at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @humabali
Like what you’re reading? Support high-quality student journalism by donating here.
