Little Baby Tendencies at Cooper-Young Porchfest ’24 (Photo: Chris McCoy)
Last Saturday, April 20, 2024, was the fourth annual Cooper-Young Porchfest. More than 100 bands played on porches, in driveways, and on lawns all over the neighborhood. The weather was cool, and it was a little cloudy, but the tunes were hot all over the Coop.
I was there with a camera trying to see as many sets as I could, which was just a tiny fraction of the talent on display. In the “Cooper-Young Porchfest Mixtape” you’ll see performances from Bluff City Vice, Cloudland Canyon, Dead Soldiers, Little Baby Tendencies, Above Jupiter, and the Walt Phelan Band, with a little bit at the end featuring Moth Moth Moth’s front lawn drag show. Settle in for some of the best music the Memphis scene has to offer.
“Porchfest” may be an unfamiliar word here in Memphis, but it’s an idea that’s been catching on across the country for over a decade. Begun in Ithaca, NY, in 2007, the idea is a simple one: Ask homeowners in a neighborhood to offer their front porches as stages for musicians; then listeners can go from porch to porch to hear them play, creating a low-cost music festival of the most intimate kind.
People have been playing on porches around here forever, of course, including the occasional shows hosted by Robert Jethro Wyatt, co-founder of Black & Wyatt Records. But this Saturday, the concept will be ramping up considerably, as the Cooper-Young Community Association (CYCA) launches their first-ever such event, Porchfest 2021, on Saturday, April 17th, from noon to 6pm.
Speaking with Amanda Yarbro-Dill, executive director of the CYCA, I learned a few things about this groundbreaking approach to live music which, oddly enough, was being discussed even before COVID-19 descended upon us.
Memphis Flyer: Was organizing Porchfest 2021 a logistical jigsaw?
Amanda Yarbro-Dill: Yes, it was. Everyone’s been really responsive, but figuring out the timing of the shows has been tricky. It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. So I guess it was easier than I thought it might be.
How did it come about? It’s such an innovative idea.
Last February, pre-pandemic, we had a resident who’s a musician come to us and say, ‘Hey, I played a porchfest in Philadelphia, I think Cooper-Young would be the perfect place to have one. What does the community association think about helping me with this?’ And we all thought it was a great idea. So I started doing research. But then COVID happened and we couldn’t do anything. This year, I started talking to people about the level of risk involved, as far as COVID, and we decided it’s something we can do safely.
The first porchfest was in Ithaca, NY, in the 90s, and it’s a model they’ve done in tons of different cities. If you go to the website you can see links to thirty, forty, fifty of varying sizes. But I think they’re all like ours, where it’s just a volunteer operation. Bands volunteer to play, porches volunteer to host them. And some group organizes the whole thing.
It began long before the pandemic, then.
Right! And then it suits this moment we’re in fairly well, where we’ve come to a point where many people have been vaccinated and anything outside is inherently safer than anything inside. So it makes a lot of sense to us.
What safety precautions or protocols are in place?
We’re asking that everyone please follow the CDC protocols. I would love to go out on Saturday and see a majority of people wearing masks. We all know now that’s a show of respect to everyone else. Because who knows what my vaccination status is? We don’t know for sure what can or can’t be transmitted, so I think we’re going to need to stay with this model of wearing masks. And that’s the messaging I’m putting out: social distance as much as you can, wear a mask as much as you can. Be respectful to all these volunteers who are making it happen.
Was it hard to find porches?
No, that’s kind of the crazy thing. When I first started talking about this with my husband, I said, ‘I will be happy if we have six bands play.’ I had a very low threshold. I didn’t know what the response was going to be at all. And I’m in a Facebook group, and invited people and bands that I knew to join, and I think in the first week we had ten porches signed up. In the end, we had more porches than we needed.
Porches will have rotating bands?
Some have only one performer, but most have at least two. With some of the porches, basically it’s the house of the musician, and they were like, ‘Okay, I’m going to book my whole porch for the whole day.’ They just took it upon themselves to do that.
What else has the CYCA done?Will there be transportation?
I would suggest to just park in Cooper-Young and walk around. It would also be a great thing to ride your bike to. And we do have custom made signs that will be in every host’s yard. We’re hoping people come and then go to neighborhood businesses, go get take out or eat at a restaurant. Go to Memphis Made. They’re our only sponsor. Buy beer from them!
“Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch.”
(Photo: courtesy of Cooper-Young Community Association)
The Cooper-Young community’s roots are showing — grassroots, that is. Like most events in Cooper-Young, a few folks got together and said, “Hey, you know what we ought to do?” And Memphis’ first Porchfest quickly grew into a grassroots celebration of spring, music, and Cooper-Young.
The first Porchfest was held in Ithaca, New York, in 2007, and has spread to more than 100 cities since. Now, the festival has found a place in the historic Cooper-Young neighborhood. Staged on the many eclectic porches in the area, musicians can perform on their own porch or find a friend who lives in the neighborhood and play on their porch. Coupled with this event, the Cooper-Young Community Association will also be bringing back their annual community yard sale.
Those CY folks are a neighborly bunch and have been missing the many community events that usually take place throughout the year. “After a lot of reflection about what can and cannot be done safely, and our collective need to come together as a community, the association has decided to host yard sales and Porchfest in 2021,” says Amanda Yarbro-Dill, executive director of the Cooper-Young Community Association. “We had quite a bit of success with the porch shows and the Light the Way event we hosted in 2020. What better way to welcome spring, and shared optimism about a return to something resembling normalcy, than an event celebrating music and facilitating connections between neighbors and the greater Memphis community?”
The yard sale starts at 8 a.m., followed by the Porchfest at noon. Follow the Cooper-Young Community Association on Facebook for more information.
