A couple of weekends ago, we attended an amazing community event – Porchfest. It is an all day music festival held on the porches of the Fall Creek and Northside neighborhoods in Ithaca, NY. Bands play on their own or friend’s porch. Some of the roads are closed so you can walk or bike around town enjoying all the great music. And there is a lot of great music! I have no idea how many bands played but there must have been over 150 playing throughout the day. With music ranging from classical to rock, country, pop, reggae to Suzuki violin ensembles and jazz combos. There was also punk rock and ukulele clubs and music from Appalachia to Brazil to Irish to Swedish to Zimbabwean. Get the picture? It was very diverse and there was music for every taste.

Kids took to the trees to get a better view of the musicians.

The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold, with a bit of cloud cover – it was an ideal day to wander around Ithaca, enjoying fantastic music. The whole community seemed to be strolling through the streets listening to incredibly talented musicians. Some streets were jammed packed, so some kids even took to the trees to get a better view. Even though there was a great diversity of music, there seemed to be an unusually large number of stand-up basses and ukuleles. I even heard an amazing fellow playing a ukulele banjo, also known as a banjolele.

Very talented young fellow

Food Trucks showed up to feed the hungry spectators.

Ithaca continues to surprise me with new and wonderful opportunities. It thrives on bringing the community together. Since their first Porchfest in 2007, the concept has spread, with at least 10 similar events across North America from Belleville, Ontario, to Tucson, Arizona. Perhaps it may come to a neighborhood near you, if you are lucky.