On Saturday, Aug. 21, hundreds of people gathered in St. Anne’s Hill, a historic neighborhood in the heart of Dayton. They came to see over 40 musical acts who performed on porches and in backyards, free of charge, for the first time since the global pandemic. This humble music festival is known as Porchfest, and there are 150 other ones just like it throughout the United States and Canada. Porchfest originated in Ithica, New York in 2007. Dayton Porchfest began in 2017 and after its cancellation last year, it returned for the fourth time this summer.
“Porchfest is a free music festival that celebrates the diversity and richness of the Dayton music scene,” said Peter Bankendorf, founder of the Dayton Collaboratory which puts on Porchfest every year.
“We are part, I like to say, research and development laboratory, part social enterprise incubator, part think tank, part community convener,” Bankendorf said. “We’re the place where Dayton’s dreamers and doers gather to move innovative ideas to transformational action.”
Besides Porchfest, the nonprofit has started several initiatives, such as Ethnosh Dayton, which promotes immigrant-owned international food restaurants in Dayton and X Factor, a community program for ex-offenders. The Collaboratory tries to focus on long term community challenges like reimagining the criminal legal system and improving Dayton Public Schools.
“We do a lot of different things but really kind of a hub, connector, convener for ideas to come to light.”
Daytonians were surely happy to be attending Porchfest after a year without it. There was a big crowd despite the August heat.
“I think the energy and the interest is extremely high, just because people are anxious to get out and hear live music again,” Bankendorf said. “The other piece of it is from the musicians’ standpoint, especially this being an outdoor activity. I think this year more than I can remember, the musicians who are about half new performers, really are especially excited about being able to be a part of it.”
The goal of Porchfest is to expose people to live music who may not otherwise have a lot of chances to see it. Porchfest is free, during the day, and very family-friendly.
“It gives the community…an opportunity engage with musicians and the diversity of music that they wouldn’t necessarily go out and hear,” Bankendorf said. “Not everybody is out there going to clubs or concerts, they have costs associated with it. If you have small kids, it’s not always easy to expose them to music.”
The Collaboratory gets about 100 applications every year. They have about 6 people on a music team that are either performers or bookers who pick the Porchfest lineup. For certain genres, they want all original music—no cover bands—and a diversity of music. For the first time this year, two classical groups performed, the Dayton String Trio and the Syrodesy Flute Trio. There is a salsa band, bluegrass, indie rock, folk, blues, a little bit of everything. 47 bands played all together.
“Really like with a lot of work with the Collaboratory, it’s about building community and bringing people together and sharing the richness of what Dayton has to offer,” Bankendorf said.
Rachel Rosen
Reporter/Social Media Coordinator