This weekend, West Philly residents can enjoy free live music just steps from their front doors.
The area's annual Porchfest returns on Saturday, June 3, for its seventh year. Between noon and 6 p.m., bands and solo acts will perform on the porches, stoops and lawns of homeowners who donated their spaces for the event. Anyone wandering by can stop and listen for free.
MORE: Porchfest musicians use Facebook to compete for West Philly performance spaces
The hundreds of musicians scheduled to perform span all genres, from pop-punk and folk to jazz and neo soul. While some bands will only take the stage for 30 minutes, others are booked for two- or three-hour slots.
Shows will be scattered across multiple neighborhoods in the wide-ranging West Philly region. Most concerts, however, will be concentrated in Cedar Park, Spruce Hill, Squirrel Hill and Walnut Hill. The organizers have published a complete map and list of participating homes on the official West Philly Porchfest website.
While the first Porchfest was hosted in Ithaca in 2007, West Philly Porchfest began in 2016 after five residents, who had seen an iteration near Boston, decided to start their own. It's returned each year since then — except for 2020 — to "build, deepen and celebrate connections within our culturally diverse community by creating a platform to share the joys of live music."
Musicians still searching for porch space can post requests to the Facebook group connecting acts with available hosts. Potential hosts, meanwhile, can register by filling out this form.
West Philly Porchfest
Saturday, June 3
12–6 p.m. | Free to attend
West Philadelphia
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