The first iteration of Denver’s version of the long-running, nationwide festival Porchfest hits the Baker neighborhood on October 3rd. For those unfamiliar with the festival’s concept, Porchfest directly involves the communities in the cities it’s held in by turning residents’ actual porches into stages on which local and traveling artists perform. A neighborhood is picked out and the people living there agree to host bands at their homes, on their porches, turning a neighborhood into a music festival. It’s simultaneously a celebration of the people that call a city home and a way to bring local music, artists, performers, food vendors and more directly to the people. Founded in Ithaca, New York in 2007, the festival has been held in cities all across America and Canada, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Portland, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Montreal and even Boulder.
Now, Porchfest is coming to Denver. In the wake of such local, community-organized festivals as Blucifer’s First Rodeo, Porchfest is yet another example of how dedicated the people that make up the Denver art and music scene are to showcasing all of this city’s talent and serves as a major step towards Denver getting the recognition it deserves as one of the best music cities in the country. Local musician Bradley Schwartz — who plays in Five Minutes Out — and the incredible team of organizers, hosts and volunteers he has amassed are responsible for bringing Porchfest to Denver and they have put in a hell of a lot of work into making it one of the season’s coolest happenings. With 195 local artists of all genres, shapes and sounds set to take over the Baker neighborhood this coming Saturday, it’s sure to be one for the books, the start of what has the potential to become a long standing Denver tradition. It’s an unbelievably ambitious project that is poised make a lasting mark on our city and the people that call it home.
Denver Dive recently spoke with Schwartz about how he had the idea to bring Porchfest to Denver, how he was able to get a whole neighborhood to agree to it, how the team came together, operating the festival on a donation-based model, what attendees can expect and much more.
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Schwartz has never attempted anything quite like Porchfest before. That being said, he considers himself “someone who gets things done,” who has thrown smaller events such as house shows over the years but nothing on this scale. He credits playing in his band, Five Minutes Out, with giving him the confidence and the willingness to put on Porchfest. “I’m not sure I would have organized a music festival had I not been playing in a band for a few years and been in Denver’s music scene,” he said. In May of this year, Five Minutes Out played Atlanta’s version of Porchfest. While there, he experienced how cool the event was, how heavily the Atlanta community showed up for it and he started considering bringing Porchfest to Denver, figuring out just what it would take. But nothing would have happened if it wasn’t for his band. He said,”I wouldn’t have been there in Atlanta had I not been in this band that was playing the festival. I don’t know if I would have been as excited to make it happen in Denver if I wasn’t.”
Schwartz feels that now is a perfect time to bring Porchfest to Denver, though acknowledged that it would have been something this city would have loved no matter when it happened. He said, “Now is just the time that I realized that it was a cool thing that could exist and and that should exist. I think five years ago would have also been a great time. I think 10 years ago would have been a great time. I see this continuing to happen 20 years from now. People will still be doing this here in Denver, hopefully. It’s the type of thing that people in this city really love.”
The first steps towards making Denver’s Porchfest happen came almost as soon as Schwartz returned from Atlanta. He had made up his mind that he wanted to do it but wasn’t sure where to start. His first move was to make an Instagram, @denverporchfest, and start following musicians and artists he admired. After quickly getting a rather huge following within just a couple of weeks, he then created an application artists could fill out in order to play the festival. Less than a month later, he already had over 100 local artists apply and that grew exponentially as time went on, eventually receiving almost 600 applications. This proved to him that he wasn’t crazy, he could do this, that the city wanted it.
Schwartz knew almost immediately that Baker would be where Porchfest would take place. The area is right by South Broadway, has been used to tons of foot traffic for years, decades even, due to festivals like Blucifer and UMS taking place right there. He said, “You move to Baker, and it’s like ‘Okay, I live next to South Broadway. I’m adjacent to the party and the music and all that already.’ And then there’s this history with UMS and Blucifer and a lot of house parties that happen over there. I think if you do enough research before you move there, you’re like ‘I know what I’m getting myself into.'”
Schwartz and his team had no problem convincing the people of Baker to allow the festival to be held there, saying that he was met with a lot of enthusiasm, that the process was “very organic.” Once they selected and knew for sure that Baker was going to be the neighborhood, he next reached out to the neighborhood president and the District Seven City Council to propose the event and start the approval process. He recalled attending neighborhood meetings and being incredibly nervous at first. He said, “I was terrified that people were gonna shit on me and say, ‘Why are you trying to throw a party in our neighborhood? You don’t live here.’ Instead, it was super positive. People were like, ‘I want to do this. My friend would want to do this. Oh, my friend has this cool balcony thing and we should stick an artist up there.’ That was very reassuring that we got really positive feedback.” Though they canvassed the neighborhood for volunteers, Schwartz also said that word of mouth spread quickly due to Baker residents all knowing each other for the most part with the festivals’ ever-growing social media presence helping out quite a bit as well.
Once they had the neighborhood picked out, the time came for Schwartz and his team to curate the lineup. This was no small task given how many applications they received. The board members split the work, spending days at a time just combing through acts, deciding which artists aligned with their vision. Schwartz described this as a rather difficult process, saying that there’s so much talent to be found in Denver and that a lot of tough calls had to be made. Eventually, they whittled it down to 195 artists, which will make Denver’s Porchfest one of the biggest Porchfests in the country. It is impossible to list them all here but notable acts include Bluebook, DVNEHPPY, Chroma Lips, Chella and the Charm, In Plain Air, Intergalactic Peace Jelly, Mango Slushy, Pleasure Prince, The Shaky Experience and many, many more. Schwartz said no genre or style was off limits when choosing acts, that he just wants to showcase as much of Denver’s music as possible. As a result, there is a good chance attendees will move from a psych band to some bluegrass to some hip hop and more within the span of a few sets. Click the link at the bottom of the article for the full lineup.
Schwartz couldn’t have done this alone. He attributes his team with truly making it all happen. In addition to Schwartz, the team includes Jay Gindi who does marketing for the fest, Abby Beltrani acting as volunteer coordinator, Orin Day as the event day operations producer, Keagan Vernon as an organizer, Laura Dufresne as content creator, Ty Cirincione as partnership lead, Pierce Miller helping with financing, Kati Dunay coordinating merch, Seth Appel as production manager, Dana Gentry helping with more marketing and media, and James Lane as the PR liaison. Though they have had further help from the community and a large pool of volunteers, these twelve people are who made this whole thing possible, showing what can happen when a group of talented, accomplished, like-minded people come together to build something. The team has spread the word, helped navigate city bureaucracy and the red tape that entails, get food and alcohol vendors on board, coordinate sponsors, figure out infrastructure such as bathrooms and water stations, and so much more, everyone putting their absolute all into making sure Porchfest will be the best it can possibly be.
The Baker community has been a great help as well, with many homeowners signing up to host sets and signing up as “Porch Captains.” These people are responsible for making sure the sets go smoothly, that any fires literal or metaphorical are put out. They include the people of Baker, their neighbors, people who may not live there who just want to be involved. They are very much the ones who will make sure the event goes off without a hitch on the day so if you see them out there while attending, maybe give ’em a hi-five or something to show how appreciated they are.
The Porchfest team does not seek to make a profit with this event. Attending is free to all but donating to Porchfest is highly recommended. Donations from attendees will allow all artists to be paid fairly and any excess money made has been pledged to local non-profit East 7th Arts, a local organization that provides autistic children with art and music therapy. It’s all for a good cause and a donation would go a long way. Porchfest is also able to happen thanks to many local businesses acting as sponsors. Sponsors include Burndown, Illegal Pete’s, Snooze, Cookie Factory, FreeForm Functions, Humantix and more, showing how invested the city is in this event. Denver Dive is also an official sponsor and we couldn’t be more excited to be involved.
The lead up to Porchfest has also been quite notable. In order to help promote and to get people excited, Schwartz and the team have been throwing shows and parties, artists meet ups, volunteer events, bar crawls and more (photos from which can be seen throughout this article). It’s been in the works a long time and the weekend is nearly upon us. Porchfest starts at noon and goes until 7pm. While the idea of trying to see as much as possible in that amount of time may be daunting, Porchfest has created an app to try to make things easier on you. The app will tell you about anything going on, delays, closures, weather, that kind of thing. If you donate $20 through the app, you will then receive access to the festivals full map and schedule so that you can better plan and coordinate your Porchfest, tailor it to you. It will also help you find the bathrooms, the merch, the food, anything else the festival has to offer. It’s highly recommended. Click the link at the end of the article to download.
All in all, Porchfest is one of the most exciting events happening in Denver this fall. It represents how much authenticity there is to be found in this city, how much passion and community lives here. Set to be the first of many, Schwartz has high hopes for Porchfest’s future in Denver, hoping to throw it every year in Baker in fall in perpetuity. He also dreams of hosting another in the spring in a different neighborhood, an effort to include as much of the city as he can. He hopes that this year is such a success that the city government takes notice and invests in the event in future iterations, allowing for the longevity Schwartz envisions to come to fruition and for him and his team to continue showcasing all the music and art and beauty Denver is overflowing with. It’s set to be an event that celebrates the city as a whole and is sure to be one hell of a party. Don’t miss it.
For everything Denver Porchfest including lineup, how to donate, how to RSVP, lists of vendors and sponsors and more visit their website here.
Download the Porchfest app here!
Follow @denverporchfest on Instagram!
