Local bands and solo artists will take to the porches of Sea Cliff on Saturday for Love Your Neighbor Project’s annual Porchfest. Community members and music lovers are invited to stroll the village streets for the 11-hour concert.
This year marks the nonprofit’s fifth Porchfest after the first in 2021. The idea originated with Sea Cliff resident Sean Llewellyn, who was involved with a youth activities board in the village before the pandemic. He approached Teich with the idea at Love Your Neighbor Project’s first end of year celebration in 2020.
“I kind of took the role of being the ‘Porchfest guy’ to handle the logistics,” Llewellyn said. “The bands, the neighbors who are sharing their porches, and then the kind of math, and kind of three dimensional chess of when people are playing, where they’re playing, how you get an audience from place to place.”
Teich said that she “fell in love” with the concept and that it made sense for her organization to hold the event to build community.
“When we thought about it through the lens of our mission,” Teich explained, “it was really all about, ‘How do you turn strangers and to neighbors?’ Music is so connective, right?”
Llewellyn tells those interested in participating to start thinking about Porchfest in February. He reaches out to musicians who have played before and residents who have previously offered their porches to gauge who plans to participate again. Llewellyn said that as demand has grown, he has musicians that have not played the event before contacting him as well. Sometimes, he has to direct artists to contact him the following February to join the next year.
“I would say that there is some preference given to local artists,” Llewellyn said, “and I’m also always looking to provide an opportunity for young performers to have a chance to get in front of a good audience.”
Roughly 800 people attended last year’s Porchfest, Teich said, though she noted that the turnout can be difficult to quantify because the event is spread out through the village.
“We do anticipate this year being a bit larger,” she added. “And so, year over year, we have seen growth. We started at like 400 people in our first year. So, the community is certainly saying to us, ‘We love this event.’”
The lineup has been finalized, featuring 22 local bands and solo musicians. Branch Real Estate Group, located in Sea Cliff, is sponsoring the event.
Until 3 p.m., there will be multiple acts performing simultaneously in different areas of the village, separated into a South-North tour and West-East tour. Once 3 p.m. hits, the two tours will come together, and the remaining ten acts will each be the only to perform at one time.
Teich emphasized that Porchfest is more than “11 hours of fun.” The money raised for Love Your Neighbor Project during the event goes toward initiatives throughout the year to support local people. The organization offers scholarships and grants, contributes to other nonprofits, and helps community members in need.
“Porchfest, for us, is the ripple effect of how we can be in community, the way that the community has asked us to show up for them,” Teich said. “And it’s 11 hours of a really good time.
To learn more about Love Your Neighbor Project, visit Lynp.BetterWorld.org.
