Porchfest Somerville returns May 9, and the city’s porches, side yards and driveways will again turn into a patchwork of stages for one of the largest PorchFests in the region. More than 530 bands are slated to perform across three two-hour sessions in three zones.
The music starts in West Somerville around Davis Square and Tufts University from noon to 2 p.m., moves to Central Somerville around Porter and Magoun squares from 2 to 4 p.m., and finishes in Union Square and East Somerville from 4 to 6 p.m. The Somerville Arts Council put together a map of every band, which is meant to help people move through the day’s packed schedule without missing the act they came to hear.
The festival dates back to 2011 and is organized by residents, with the Somerville Arts Council overseeing the day’s logistics. Jill McCracken said there is “not much that is more wonderful than the romance of wandering from place to place and being pulled in by the music that catches your ear,” a description that fits the event’s loose, neighborhood-by-neighborhood design.
That design is also part of the strain. Evan Joseph Ringle said, “You’ve got bands sleeping on top of bands,” and DJ Saucy Lady said, “Everyone's playing everywhere.” Ryan DiLello said, “We can just roll into our front yard and play to a couple hundred people,” while Adric Giles called it “amazing to get to peer into somebody's world for a second and see what they're working on creatively.”
Bathroom access remains the practical problem that shadows the celebration. Iaritza Menjivar said the site has had difficulty keeping up with traffic on the day of the festival, and added, “With over 500 bands participating, I worry that no amount of portable restrooms will feel like it's enough, unfortunately.” The city is doubling its porta-potty count this year to 98 temporary public toilets, most of them along the Community Path.
That increase may not solve the festival’s most familiar complaint, but it does show how large porchfest somerville has grown. A homegrown event built on wandering, chance encounters and open-front living has become big enough to require a formal map, a staggered schedule and a small army of toilets.
