Porchfest moves into Arlington Park

Patio, stoop, porch — whatever you call it, on Sunday in Arlington Park it was a stage.

Porchfest, a grassroots music festival, moved into the neighborhood for its second year.

“You have the massive festivals that cost you money to get into. This is completely different,” band organizer Andrea Needham said. “It’s grassroots. It’s all about music and local.”

Porchfest is exactly what it sounds like — a music festival that trades the bright lights of the main stage for the porch lights on your neighbor’s front lawn. It’s funky, it’s free and it’s B.Y.O.E — bring your own everything.

Festivalgoers meandered through the neighborhood on bicycle and on foot on Oct. 8. Driveways and sidewalks served as grandstands. Some followed maps, scoping out particular acts. Others let their ears be their compass, following the sound of each front porch performance.

The event has come a long way since its first year. It began as a post in Arlington Park’s Nextdoor app, a social network for neighborhood groups. Porchfest is a national initiative that started in Ithaca, New York in 2007, and has been adapted by several communities and cities since.

Arlington Park resident Linda Buxbaum saw one such festival on social media and asked if anybody would be willing to bring Porchfest to Sarasota.

“So we just started having meetings at each other’s houses,” Needham said.

A small committee composed a small festival using what resources it had. Members met over pizza dinners in their neighbor’s living rooms. Residents volunteered their yards and bands played for free.

“We didn’t know if people were going to show up,” Porchfest committee member Danielle O'Donnell said. “We didn’t know how it was going to work logistically.”

Despite some minor kinks, the festival did, indeed, work. It worked so well, in fact, the committee started planning the 2017 Porchfest two weeks after last year’s. Members had their work cut out for them. The festival doubled in size for its second year with 40 bands playing on 20 porches throughout the neighborhood.

“All the hosts are super excited and honored,” Needham said. “There are so many people that wanted to be a house that weren’t in our block. Last year we were a little spread out … we really made it where it’s walkable.”

Maintaining walkability was one of a series of tweaks to this year’s event. The neighborhood introduced an art alley, brought in food vendors and started a GoFundMe page to pay their bands.

The festival is one of a series of newcomers to Arlington Park. Much like Sarasota as a whole, it’s a neighborhood in transition. Newer, bigger houses are replacing their craftsmen predecessors with a mixed reception from residents.

But even as new foundations are being poured from Wisteria to Waldemere, O’Donnell said she hopes that her efforts and those of her fellow committee members construct something else.

“Just this sense of community and this pride that I live in Arlington Park — we want to build things like that,” O’Donnell said.

For O’Donnell, Porchfest is a part of that plan. It’s a celebration of Arlington Park and brings out its best. Children dance in front yards. Strangers smile at each other while passing on the sidewalk.

As for the festival, Needham and O’Donnell both expect it to grow. They want to include more of the neighborhood and look into closing key streets. However, whatever success comes, Needham said Porchfest will always have a home.

“We are never going to move out of the neighborhood because that’s kind of the point,” she said. “It’s Porchfest. It has to be on people’s porches.”