Sixteen years ago, Fall Creek’s Porchfest festival was an informal gathering of 20 musicians who realised they could perform on their porches, since that was where they rehearsed anyway.
“A lot of us were practicing on our porches, and somebody came up with the idea – why not have a concert and have everybody practice on the porch at the same time?” said Cookie Coogan, a local singer.
The musicians performed on private property – homeowners’ porches, hence the name – and organised the event informally. Andy Adeliwitz, a Porchfest co-organiser, said the city largely ignored the gatherings at first.
“In the early years, it was very low-key,” Adeliwitz said. “All the performances were on private property, and the crowds were relatively small, so the city was pretty hands-off.”
But a lot has changed between the founding of Porchfest in 2007 by neighbours Gretchen Hildreth and Lesley Greene and the most recent event on Sunday 24 September, which featured 150 performers. The event now requires collaboration with the City of Ithaca and a significant support infrastructure of volunteers, organisers, permits and vendors, according to Adeliwitz. Still, he says, the artists have maintained the original loose, informal atmosphere.
“We definitely don’t have to take a hands-on approach with the performers – people want to play Porchfest and look forward to it every year,” Adeliwitz said. “We just open up submissions in the summer and get the word out.”
Performers at this year’s edition of Porchfest highlighted the connections between the groups and the Ithaca community, with Eva Lampugnale, lead singer of local punk band Microbes, Mostly, promising to support another band immediately after her set.
“It takes a community of people to make it work,” Lampugnale said during the event. “There’s a band around the corner called the Dart Brothers, and our bass player’s mom plays fiddle in that band, so we’re going to go support them.”
Malcolm Olson ’24, who has been a Microbes fan since the band’s inception, said the band’s support of other groups is what makes them special.
“They’ve always been such huge supporters of other musicians in the area – I don’t know if the Ithaca scene would be half as open and vibrant as it is right now without their influence over the past few years,” Olson said. “All the coolest bands worship them and all the nicest music geeks go to their shows.
Microbes, Mostly is not the only band with ties to other groups and figures in the Ithaca music scene. Students from Cornell’s MUSIC 4615: Jazz Ensemble class also performed at Porchfest, playing a variety of jazz tunes in the basement of Opus Music School. They were directed by Prof. Paul Merrill, Music, who was mentored by Prof. Steve Brown, Music Performance, Ithaca College.
So did Coogan, who performed a vocal jazz set with Dave Solazzo, a jazz piano teacher and visiting lecturer at Cornell. Coogan came to Ithaca in 1984, where she attended Ithaca College and studied with Brown, whom she credits with getting her started in the Ithaca music scene.
“[Brown] started getting me out there, and I liked Ithaca and didn’t want to go home,” Coogan said. “So [performing] with [Solazzo] today, I was just so excited.”
