FresYES: What One Porchfest Taught Me About Civic Joy
Fresno has a music festival that gets civic life right
“Usher cover band. Final answer.” I’d previously floated Prince or 112. But after watching a couple of ethnically-ambiguous guys in Fresno cover “U Got It Bad” on acoustic guitar, I was finally ready to commit.
I encountered Vibe Check while visiting my friends, Dan and Kanchan, who moved to Fresno last summer when Kanchan started graduate school. Vibe Check, a quintet based in Fresno, was participating in the Tower District’s Porchfest.
If you’re unfamiliar, Porchfest is a series of annual, local music festivals that take place in cities across the country. Fittingly, Porchfest started in Ithaca, NY in 2007—a place where you’d expect neighbors with ukuleles to spark a movement.
Two neighbors organized for 20 bands to play (for free) on porches around town. Years later, the number of participating bands in Ithaca increased about 10x, and festivals have spread—like Ithaca’s gorges—to cities across the country.
I’ve been fortunate to attend three prior Porchfests: once in Somerville, MA in the early 2010s, and in Oakland in 2024 and 2025, just a handful of weeks ago.
In Somerville, I recall biking around to porches around the city to hear fairly folksy and jazzy tunes. I didn’t really have a mental model for what Porchfest was—or music festivals in general—so I thought it was a bit idiosyncratic to the city that also throws a festival dedicated to marshmallow fluff.
Last year, I attended Porchfest in Oakland, not at any porches, but rather at 7th West, a great bar and gathering space in West Oakland. With one stage, it didn’t quite fit the version of Porchfest I’d seen in Somerville. Still, I applaud the team who put it on for taking initiative in bringing it to Oakland.
They ran it back this year just a few blocks from me at a house across the street from Temescal Pool. While there was still only one porch, the vibe was immaculate.
But nothing compared to Fresno. This year’s Porchfest, sprawled across the Tower District, boasted somewhere around 300 acts, which I estimate to mean there were sixty-something participating porches. In one neighborhood!
Even in the rain, crowds showed up at every house, often arriving on bikes in cheerful, soggy packs. There were strategically placed port-o-potties, food trucks, and even tarot readings.
At the second house we visited, a graying, bluesy rock n roll band lured us over from the food truck by playing both standards and originals. The house’s owner invited us in for keg beers and mimosas after (gently) “confirming” we were 21.
I was as impressed with the friendliness of the community as I was with the quality of music and the scale of the production.
But my most seasoned music festival friend, Brian, always instructed us to look at the logistics to truly evaluate a festival.
And although it seemed rather DIY, the logistics were painless. Their website offered information, and interactive map of stages and amenities, and anything else an attendee might need. Signage indicating official venues was on every lawn. And there was even a centralized merch table pulling double duty as an info booth.
And although I don’t want to become an Abundance Stan™️ until I read Ezra’s and Derek’s book, I had to wonder how Fresno’s permitting bureaucracy interfaced with the festival’s planning. Or rather, how much Oakland’s permitting bureaucracy and NIMBYs might hinder the ability for such an event to transpire in The Town at more than one porch.
Could something like Fresno’s Porchfest happen in Oakland—on twenty porches in Fruitvale or Temescal, all in one day? And if so, would the collective planning and neighborhood participation lead to the kind of social capital we’re always chasing? Maybe that sense of shared ownership is what makes the magic.
Is there something special about the participatory nature of Porchfest—in that each house is responsible for organizing and planning their respective porch’s lineup?
Is this contribution from each house key to the feeling of shared ownership and pride that permeate the festival? Is the self-organization what makes the logistics so successful and painless?
I’m excited to find out. I’m going to get in touch with the Porchfest Oakland folks to see what barriers they ran into related to permitting or other neighborhood sensitivities.
Through conversations with the Uptown-Downtown Community Benefit District and the Oakland Restaurant Collective, there’s clear appetite for more events that create critical mass of people that can counter the unfair negative narratives that surround a great city like Oakland. These sorts of events would also kick start the virtuous circle that might begin to pull the city out of its fiscal challenges by bringing in more revenue.
The Ballers and OakHella—respectively, our independent baseball team and a local entertainment collective—are just two recent examples of how residents have shaped the fabric of the city. And I think there’s no limit to the creativity that exists in the home of the Hyphy Movement, Rocky Road ice cream, Jelly Beans, and the Mai Tai.
Listen: I’ve drunk the KoolAid on Fresno. It’s FresYES to me.
Now we need more experiences that show even without the A’s, Oakland is still A-OK1.
Porchfest Videos
Vibecheck:
The Ultimate Porch with House Music, Vintage Clothes & Chai:
Upcoming Events
May 3, 12-5pm: Record Swap & Mayniac Market at Hesher’s Pizza. Swing by Hesher’s for dj sets, art, shirts, pants, glassware, knit goods, jewelry, and anything else you can imagine.
May 4, 9:30-12pm: Make a Miniature Vignette. In this 2.5 hour workshop for adults, you’ll create a miniature scene that features a wall and floor, framed piece of art, console table, miniature books, and clock. You’ll get to customize your space with a choice of art print and mini-framing method, “tile” color and pattern, wall color, clock color, and more. Final dimensions approx. 7.75” tall x 6” wide x 3.7” deep. Hosted by JOINERS regular, Erica Meade. RSVP at Brushstrokes Studio.
May 4, 6-8pm. East Bay Working Families Party: Social + Victory Party. Join WFP celebration of Oakland Mayor-elect Barbara Lee and Star Wars. RSVP on Mobilize.
May 17. Maker’s Market at Two Pitchers. Discover unique crafts, fashion, art, and more from talented creators. Free entry and pet-friendly. Get in touch with @popupgaller.sanfrancisco to vend.
My only footnote this week is an apology for this sentence.