(Photo: City of Cambridge via social media)
Cambridge is preparing to take performer, host and volunteer applications for its second Porchfest, set for July 11-12 primarily in the Cambridgeport, The Port and Riverside neighborhoods.
Registration for people helping make the weekend musical, rain or shine, opens May 4 and closes May 31, organizers said.
The annual event featuring free miniconcerts hosted by residents on porches and in yards citywide. Cambridge follows cities such as Brookline, Jamaica Plain and Watertown in adopting the event – though Somerville is considered the real torchbearer. There, the festival enters its 15th year (though the Covid pandemic years of 2020 pivoted to a “CouchFest”). Launching with around 60 bands in 2011, Porchfest has grown to last year include almost 500 performers; Cambridge’s inaugural event in Cambridgeport, just south of Central Square, drew more than 80 performers at 25 locations, according to Cambridge Arts.
While most such “decentralized” music festivals take place across entire cities and towns, Cambridge said last year that it would test the idea and expand cautiously.
Porchfest performances are also planned for July 12 in outdoor dining and gathering spaces in Central and Harvard squares through a partnership among Cambridge Arts, the Central Square Business Improvement District and Harvard Square Business Association, according to a Tuesday email.
For the participating areas, the city is “excited to feature as many local and neighborhood-based performers as possible and will give priority to those applications,” but residency isn’t the rule. Organizers “will also consider performers who are not based in Cambridge and based on the availability of performances spaces and locations.”
“All are welcome. Play solo or with a group, electric or acoustic, with instruments or a cappella. We welcome all ages and styles and hope to celebrate the broad diversity of Cambridge,” organizers said, while explaining that a porch, yard, or driveway can be a stage. Performers without a stage and stages without performers will be matched.
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