Because the annual Oakhurst Porchfest neighborhood musical jam/happening contains multitudes, there is no single, simple explanation of how Porchfest works. But Stephanie Dorfman and her acoustic cover band, Weatherproof, can shed a little light.
When the band played on an Oakhurst front porch last year, another resident, Peter Huber, liked them and reached out to Dorfman on Facebook. This year the house where Weatherproof had performed had been sold, so she asked Huber and his husband, Ben, if they would host them in 2024.
In the meantime, Weatherproof (named after a pair of socks) had changed personnel and now numbers six members of what she calls “an all-female-identifying band that includes queer women, trans women, women of many colors, religions and countries of origin.”
Multiply that by more than 200 bands and houses in an area of several blocks, and you have the decentralized, crazy-but-it-works non-structure that is Porchfest.
The festival hails its 10th anniversary from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday.
“It just really feels very celebratory and open,” Dorfman said, “an experience where it feels very diverse and ‘Y’all means all.’”
Credit: Photo courtesy of Wylde Centaur
Credit: Photo courtesy of Wylde Centaur
Scott Doyon, a partner in an urban planning firm, started Oakhurst Porchfest in 2015 after hearing about the original Porchfest held in Ithaca, New York, in 2007. (There have been many Porchfests since that one, all over the country.)
“Everything is roots up rather than top down,” he explained. Everything is delegated to the neighborhood, so we have almost a thousand people who are playing some sort of role. But those roles don’t really have oversight by me,” he said, even though his title, which he prefers not to emphasize, is co-organizer.
“This year we have 225 performances, and we have 225 hosts,” he continued “And each one of those people is responsible for the Porchfest experience on that little slice of land at that one hour of the day, which means that every host is empowered to some degree to make Porchfest whatever they want to make it.”
It helps that Oakhurst, an older residential neighborhood on the southern edge of Decatur, has some of that Berkeley-meets-Mayberry vibe that Decatur is known for. Organizers strongly encourage people who don’t live in Oakhurst to bike, take MARTA, rideshare or park outside the neighborhood and walk; streets are open but not car-friendly during the day.
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Meagher family
Credit: Photo courtesy of the Meagher family
Doyon’s loose organizing committee works in partnership with the Decatur Arts Alliance, which coordinates portable toilets, police coverage and the printing of maps and signs. Those parts are funded by ticket sales from the separate annual Porchfest Wine Crawl, which the Arts Alliance sponsors, executive director Angie Macon said.
“People have actually come up to me and said, ‘I bought my house in Oakhurst because of Porchfest,’” Macon said.
Attendance estimates are hard to come by, but Macon guesses 5,000 to 10,000 people.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Matt Donald.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Matt Donald.
A lot of Porchfest music falls loosely into the accommodating Americana bucket, with covers of Boomer-friendly oldies, harmony vocals and bluegrass well represented. But there’s also jazz, soul, kids wailing on electric guitars, a string quartet from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and even occasional improv theater.
Building contractor Matt Donald has lived for 27 years in his 1915 Oakhurst bungalow with a big front porch. He is the rare homeowner/musician double dipper, so he hosts himself.
His current band is Gin Joint Rascals. “I would categorize us as a nontraditional five-piece string band,” he said.
The Porchfest website includes a mission statement, written by Doyon, that the festival is “an experiment in radical generosity and goodwill predicated solely on the act of giving.”
Donald appreciates the vaguely hippie vibe of that sentiment.
“I was born in 1970, so I didn’t hit the hippie era,” he said, “but I’m very much in tune with that whole community giving thing. Nobody’s getting paid for this. It’s put on by the homeowners for fun, and people are generously donating their time. And I have to say, over the years, they’ve really added another level to the community spirit.”
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Although plenty of “outsiders” come to Oakhurst every year for the festival, at its most basic level Porchfest is for Oakhurst.
“Oakhurst, like any intown neighborhood, has experienced a lot of change,” said Doyon, a 30-year neighborhood resident. “And as it changes, the nature of the residents changes. At one time, Oakhurst had a much larger blue-collar population, and a lot of newcomers are professionals. It sets up the possibility in the wrong circumstances for people to jump to conclusions. It doesn’t take a lot for cynicism to take over and have everything go south.
“I see Porchfest as a way of transcending those assumptions,” he continued, “to where you’re actually hanging out with the people on your street and getting to know them as people and having music be the glue that pulls everyone together.
“It simply makes for a better neighborhood.”
IF YOU GO
Oakhurst Porchfest
Noon-7 p.m. Saturday. Free. Oakhurst neighborhood, Decatur. oakhurstporchfest.org
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