Porchfest event is coming to Cambridge in July, different from Somerville and expected to grow

Cambridge is getting a Porchfest, but when it arrives in early to mid-July it won’t look much like the annual event run every May in Somerville.

The test and starting point for a new annual Cambridge tradition is expected to be run with the Central Square Business Improvement District and be an open-air “Deckfest” among its bars and restaurants, with some acts spreading to homes in Cambridgeport and other contiguous neighborhoods, Cambridge Arts executive director Jason Weeks told city councillors at their Monday meeting.

The city expects to take the lessons from a weekend inaugural event and expand it citywide in 2026, ideally using expected state grants to pay for it and offer performers honorariums to take part, Weeks said.

“Many of us have longed for this to happen,” said councillor Patty Nolan, who wrote the May 20 order leading to Weeks’ report. She expressed interest in seeing it expand quickly: “That’s a really important part of it … Part of the value of Porchfest in Somerville is the ability of attendees to see a variety of different neighborhoods.”

There are around 40 events labeled Porchfest annually in Massachusetts, with several among Cambridge’s neighbors – Arlington, Watertown, Belmont, Lexington and Newton have them, in addition to Somerville – and Weeks’ report said it took lessons from several.

Somerville’s Porchfest

Somerville’s began in 2011 and is run by its Arts Council as a “decentralized music festival” that divides the city in three sections, each getting a two-hour shift so attendees can migrate from noon to 6 p.m. Pre-Covid pandemic, more than 200 musicians and bands performed; when the event returned in 2023, that leaped to more than 350, raising recurring questions about street closings and event management.

This year there was another seismic event: Guster – an international touring indie rock band with local roots – played from a porch at Cedar and Aberdeen streets. The crowd stretched to the horizon.

Davis Square Plaza and several streets are closed to car traffic for the duration, around 25 port-a-potties are set up across Somerville and the city posts a map of participating sites and bands, but municipal government is otherwise hands-off, said Gregory Jenkins, director of the Somerville Arts Council.

“Every year, we’re asked about … curating the event more. At that point, it’s not PorchFest anymore,” Jenkins said. “The spirit of PorchFest is that the bands are trusted to be respectful, to communicate with their fans and to organize themselves,” including finding the porches or yards where they will perform if they don’t have their own spot.

Getting started in Cambridge

That’s not how Cambridge expects to get started with a date wedged carefully between the annual free Dance Party in front of City Hall (June 28) and Cambridge Jazz Festival (July 26-27). In addition to the potential payments, consideration of public access to toilets and placing of performers in business-district eateries, Weeks said staff thinking around Porchfests considered that “not everyone in the city has a porch, and so who gets to play on those porches?” and thoughts about how to “also partner with public spaces that we also have a little bit more control over. It’s sort of ‘both, and.’”

“We’re excited to do that work and to come up with a way where Cambridge can do Porchfest better, perhaps, and differently than other communities, and use all of the resources that we have available to us,” Weeks said. “The question of how we treat and compensate the folks, that’s been a sticky point in a number of the conversations I’ve had with other municipalities and most especially with the performers.”

The idea of equity in the form of broad participation was also discussed by councillors and Weeks – having a variety of kinds of performances and performers, from a “brand-new municipal chorus” mentioned by Weeks to inclusion of the nonprofit Hip Hop Transformation raised by councillor Ayesha Wilson, and bringing to the stage kids as well as seniors. “You see sort of a particular sweet spot in age that has been represented” in most Porchfests, Weeks said, “but we know we have a lot of talent right here in Cambridge both with our youth and our elders and everyone in between.”

Expanding the concept

It calls for extensive and creative forms of outreach, Weeks said.

Venues should also expand to include everything from the front of City Hall to churches and the courtyards of senior housing to include a group of people who “don’t get to go out as often as they would like,” Mayor E. Denise Simmons said. “I was really pleased to hear and read is that it’s not just about porches.”

Another thing that may be different about Cambridge’s version of Porchfest: There’s no set time limit on the event, Weeks said. A weekendlong event is the vision only for the first year.

“I specifically didn’t put a time limit on it” in the report filed with the council, he said. “When you look at Porchfest events around the commonwealth, it’s a day or, at the most, a weekend. We were beginning with the thought that it would be a weekend event and we build from there based on what we hear back from the community.”

“It could be huge,” Weeks said. “And so I think we have to pace ourselves.”

A stronger

Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.

We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.

Please consider a recurring contribution.

Donate now