Well, that was awesome.
The 2nd Annual Oakhurst Porchfest is now officially in the books. More venues, more total hours of music and more community food options translated into a lot more attendees (aka neighbors) and quite possibly even more fun than last year!
As is always the case with a Porchfest of this size, no one is able to experience the entire event. Just too many porches and too many musicians for one mortal to take in. So we’re eager to hear your stories.
The picture above shows probably the most well-circulated story to date – a Porchfest wedding! – which culminated with a procession through Harmony Park to the Black Sheep Ensemble on Saturday night as the event wrapped up.
So we want to hear all your stories. What did you hear, see, eat? Any unexpected, fun surprises?
And finally, a giant thank you to the Oakhurst community for putting on another amazing event. Y’all are an inspiration.
Photo courtesy of Scott
I’d love to know what the estimated total attendance was.
So would we! Seriously, with the herd shifting back and forth all across a square mile for six hours, we’ve yet to identify an accurate way to get a number. Anyone?
We had a great time. Listened to Eliot Bronson and ate what was probably the best street-food burger ever at Oakhurst Market. My only criticism is I think the city needs to consider shutting down some of the residential streets for the duration of the festival. There was a lot of foot traffic and vehicle traffic mixing it up and I think that’s problematic, particularly if an emergency vehicle needs to get through, etc. I’m not sure the best way to do that, since the festival occurs on numerous streets, but maybe you could have some designated for pedestrian traffic and some for vehicular. Just a suggestion.
I agree with Dan’s suggestion of cutting down car traffic. Maybe make some streets vehicle free at certain times?
Re street closings, I agree and would like to see more people blocking cars from patking in bottleneck areas–did see some cones and chairs out, that could be a grassroots solution.
Two dangerous situations I observed: A huge food service delivery truck went down Mead and through the overflowing crowd gathered for the Owls set, and Ansley between Jefferson and Oakview was dangerously crowded with cars parked on both sides of street, drivers, porch overflow for Carlos Danger, and pedestrians/cyclists/baby strollers had minimal room to pass.
I would like to advocate for no street closures for Porchfest. Because Porchfest is different. It’s not like any other festival and we should continue to think of it that way. Porchfest is a wonderful experiment in the idea of shared streets and personal responsibility. I’m all for a Porchfest without barricades, without fences and without any signs that say “NO . . .” If you start closing off streets, you run the danger of destroying Porchfest in order to save it. If you would like to understand more about where I’m coming from I encourage you google these names: Hans Monderman and Ben Hamilton-Baillie. See if what they preach(ed) makes any sense. What Would Monderman Do?
I’m not sure how making a few accommodations in the name of safety will pose a threat to Porchfest. As it grows, I think that kind of logistical planning will be inevitable. The streets were nearly impossible to navigate as I was trying to leave. I think that’s a problem the planners need to think about.
There are no rules about which streets cars can’t go on, but also no rule that says you must bring your car into the middle of the wonderful sea of humanity. If one was caught up in “traffic” this year, one may find a different location for one’s car next year during Porchfest.
Barricades and fences are for other festivals. Shared streets and shared responsibility are for Porchfest.
I was using the parking spaces that were identified by the organizers. If those are going to be a problem for people attending the festival to use, maybe they shouldn’t encourage people to park there. I don’t see how a little logistical planning will deal a devastating blow to the festival or make it commercial. If there’s an incident, it would be helpful if emergency vehicles have the ability to get through unimpeded. This isn’t a knock on the festival. I think it’s a wonderful idea. But yeah, there were some issues on Saturday, and I think it would be prudent to address them before there’s a conflict. You want to be proactive in doing something instead of waiting until the city tells you that you have to do it.
Reviewing the Porchfest website – I find recommendations to not drive, but if driving necessary it says this . . . “Our suggestion? Park towards the outer edges of the neighborhood and work your way in on foot.” That’s a pretty clear message to me. Seems as if there was enough planning. The plan called for people to think twice about trying to get their personal cars mixed up with all the bright shiny faces walking everywhere.
Porchfest doesn’t appear to be playing by the rules you are trying to put upon Porchfest. Porchfest appears to be saying that we’re going to try to this experiment in shared streets and shared responsibility. Porchfest is zigging while you want it to zag. To me, it’s invigorating, this willingness to do it differently. It’s a festival that might only work like this in Decatur. I like it.
Lots of the attendees do not live in Decatur and will inevitably have to make a trip in their car to get to it at some point, just like we did. I don’t think being disorganized is some badge of honor. I think it’s just something that all festivals have to get better at as they grow, as this one will. Someone at City Hall is going to insist on some level of planning for these issues at some point if the festival keeps growing, which it undoubtedly will. City Police are working it already, and that alone ties up resources. The city has been a great partner with its hands off approach. If the structure of the festival leads to issues, there will be a response and it may not be to the organizers’ liking. All I’m saying is, look, you know you have a good thing going here, you know there’s some logistical issues that you might not have anticipated, so why not get ahead of them and try to avoid them before you’re forced to do something about it?
I encourage you to think about this through the eyes of Hans Monderman. What you see as disorganized, others might see as a revolutionary answer.
Vigil Strange aka Soul1 had an amazing time playing their 1st Porchfest. Thank you EJ/Deb and Oakhurst!
We had heard about this unique music festival from a friend and were so glad we went! A beautiful day and a beautiful community. We started our afternoon watching our son play in Vigil Strange (now Soul1) at the coolest looking house ever on Mead Street. We loved the shady streets and lemonade stands and barbecue that popped up here and there as we walked down the street. Will definitely come back for next year!
1. Listened to music
2. Drank beer
3. Live action Frogger on Mead Road
Porch Fest 2015 was the impetus for my family moving to Decatur. We walked along the beautiful streets and it allowed us to really see the neighborhood. While I’ve had my office in Decatur for seven years, you don’t get that kind of insight just driving around the neighborhoods. Porch Fest 2016 was our first as Decatur residents.
We had an awesome time for the second year in a row. Spent most of our day around Harmony Park and on Mead Street. That street in particular may be a good candidate for shutting down car traffic. It’s both narrow and jam packed with porches hosting shows. Lola Cole may have been our favorite set of the day, but all of the music we heard was fantastic. Big props to the high school (or middle school?) kids playing Zepplin covers around the 3pm hour.
Sydney Rhame, Royal Johnson were both really, really good. Simply a great event. Thanks to the organizers!
I never thought anything like this would ever happen to me. Though our family has hosted bands the last two years, I must admit that, until now, I had always thought Porchfest stories were made up. It just seemed too much of a stretch of credulity to believe that they are true, real-life tales, but a recent experience caused me to put aside my skepticism.
And what a story it is!
Before I go any further, let me first describe myself. I’m in my mid-fifties, balding, larger than your average bear, and have lean, strong hands . . .
IMHO, Porchfest is the BEST Decatur festival. Um, maybe even best festival anywhere.
We started the day at Harmony Park with the acapella gospel singers from Thankful Baptist. From there we moved on to the Frank Hamilton School performance on Eastlake. After a quick fish sandwich (thanks Thankful!) it was on to Mead: David Leonard, Virgil Strange and then Sydney Rhame.
Next was a tour of 2nd Ave: Stoplight Roses and a few other bands…
After brownies, cookies and the Wheatpennies on Oakview, we found 80’s cover nirvana on Benson St. (Smithereens, oh how I miss you!).
And then, we found our band of the day: Phoebe, on McCoy. These kids were un-freakin-believable. They had it all: incredible guitar skills, a lead singer with all the moves and some great originals. Even an audience screaming for an encore! I hope they’ll be back next year.
We ended the day with Rockabilly Kitty Rose and sadly headed home wishing it were a 2 day event!
We’re so glad we biked instead of walking. We were able to cover alot of ground and see so much!
Can’t wait for next year!!
Not to be a naysayer, RWD, but the Book Festival remains the best Decatur festival, imho. Partly that’s due to what others mentioned: the lack of street closures. Though I assume there were no incidents, my wife and I were frequently nervous as we saw children darting into the streets. The other reason, and I admit this is probably more about my own tastes, is that I was never engaged by any of the performers the way I have often been by authors at the book fest. Instead the performances were pleasant background music we enjoyed while eating yummy smoked wings (thanks again JT) and enjoying the nice day and nice people. And that’s fine. I appreciate that it’s a community event with a truly organic structure and feel to it. But I doubt I’ll ever eagerly await the schedule of events like I do every year with the DBF.
The hurdy gurdy is a cool instrument. Enjoyed listening to Melissa the Loud play it and show us how it worked afterwards.
What a fantastic festival scheduled for the perfect time of year. I was so proud to take our out-of-town guests. I agree the streets should be closed, in a perfect world. A group could raise money by shuttling folks around on golf carts. How fun would that be?!
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Jam Haus on 4th to play, sing, listen, and hang out. We had probably 6-8 acoustic guitars, a fiddle, a harmonica, a concertina (!), and a wonderful crowd of enthusiastic singers, storytellers, and well-wishers.
Thanks especially to John Harvey from Frank Hamilton School for leading the merry makers!
Had a lot of fun all day, but was somewhat taken aback at how generally rude the audience was at Becky Shaw’s 3:00 performance on Adams Street. Perhaps people had been camped near the keg on the lawn for a while and were somewhat inebriated, but for me it was another example of a disturbing trend in my live music experiences, namely folks who come to a show to socialize instead of to hear the music. God help you if you ask them to be quiet and infringe on their right to have a good time while being disrespectful to the performers and the people who came to actually hear them.
That was our experience at most of the performances. Like I said before, the music was more background to socializing and drinking. Which shouldn’t be surprising since that’s the case at pretty much every outdoor music festival.
FMFats, a few months ago at the OK Computer tribute at Terminal West I witnessed a physical altercation over this very issue, when a man fruitlessly tried to get a group of youngsters to either shut up or move. One of the girls’ boyfriends came over and there was some pushing and shoving–so disappointing at was otherwise a spellbinding performance. I guess it’s to be expected at free events, but I’ll never understand why people pay money to go to shows that they clearly have no interest in (other than being seen and running their mouths) when they could just go to a bar and do that.