PorchFest NDG 2023
As I arrived at Girouard Park in NDG, I already felt a bit overdressed. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in early May, something that doesn’t happen every year. It felt appropriate that I was meeting Aurora Robinson and Sarah Ring, the two founders and current organizers of Porchfest NDG, an event that benefitted from unseasonable warmth like this for its very first edition in 2015. This bit of good fortune was not lost on the pair, though they decided to play it safer with future iterations.
“It was a glorious night. It was the first real day of spring. That was so serendipitous,” Sarah recalls. “We pushed the date further into May to be more sure that we would get sunshine, and then we expanded it to two days, one weekend. We had it on Mother's Day weekend, and that wasn't great because people were doing Mother's Day things, so we switched to Victoria Day weekend.” Robinson added that, in case of rain, “it's also handy to have the extra day, the Monday.”
Porchfest NDG is exactly what it sounds like: a music festival where front and back porches in NDG turn briefly into concert stages. When one show is done, another is starting just down the block. It features seasoned performers who play regularly in venues, as well as friends who usually play together in their basement making their way outside and in front of an audience of neighbours. The artists provide their own venues, either by living there, or by having friends in the area willing to lend their porch. The audience comes from the community, or to NDG from all across Montreal for this unique local event.
If this sounds very DIY, it’s because, at its core, it is. But, as anyone who’s ever put together, or tried to put together such an event will tell you, making it work is never that simple. Some stages host multiple shows, different shows are happening simultaneously, and there are countless other details to consider. Plus there is building a schedule, promo, and all the other tasks essential in the leadup to the event itself. That’s where Aurora and Sarah come in. The pair, along with a team of roughly 20 volunteers, handle all the details.
And that’s exactly what they were doing this fine Saturday afternoon. I met them in Girouard Park, a great spot from which to launch their afternoon of postering. From there we headed down Sherbrooke Street, where they asked local businesses if they could put up the festival poster in their window. The reaction from the merchants I visited with them was one of genuine interest, and in some cases, excitement. This was an event that brought the locals out, brought new people to the community -- and to their businesses, if only for a couple of days.
“I think especially the deps and restaurants appreciate it a lot,” Aurora observed. Some businesses have participated directly in Porchfest by providing venues. Encore Books on Sherbrooke is a festival staple and always has some artists performing in front. Aurora works there, and describes the shop as “very community oriented. They have been here for a long time and just kind of like an institution at this point." Cafe Mariposa on Côte Saint Luc Road has also hosted Porchfest shows in the past, and will again this year. However, the festival won’t be headed down the sponsorship route. “One of our values is really that it should not be commercialized,” Sarah noted, “and there's always kind of a push for that to happen.” Instead, they rely on a small investment from the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Borough (“it's just like pocket change, really” according to Robinson), volunteer support, and, primarily, the NDG community to keep the event alive and thriving.
One community member both organizers specifically cite is Sharon Sweeney at the NDG Community Council. Not only has she been a great supporter over the years, but she was also the person who initially put the pair together. Additionally, Sharon was the one who kept the Porchfest ethos going during the pandemic years by livestreaming serenades from the porch. Porchfest proper didn’t happen in 2020 and 2021, returning for a one-day version in October 2022. While it is an outdoor event, it’s still one that encourages people to gather in person in front of (or behind) homes, a precarious prospect when advance planning is required.
“That was the thing,” Aurora said, “it was really hard because we had to start planning months in advance. So everything was so uncertain back then, like, oh, is there going to be another wave? Is there not going to be another wave? So we didn't want to do all this work and then for it to turn out to be during a peak wave of some kind and then have to cancel the whole thing.”
“I think this might be the first year we have non music,” Aurora said, “but it might open up a little…I don't think we're going to reject anybody who asks if they want to do a puppet show or something. We'll be like, okay, cool.” Ring added “I think Walter [J. Lyng of the NDG Comedy Fest] is going to sing. Is Walter going to sing some of his songs? Oh, is that musical?”
Another difference this year is that there won’t be an official opening or closing event (these were previously organized by NDG Arts Week). Instead, Aurora and Sarah will start both days at Encore Books with a merch table and maps printed at Bureau en Gros (always last-minute, in case there are schedule changes). They will then head out to shows they know will be packed, and possibly spill out into the street, to do traffic control for motorists that don’t know there’s a show happening. They will also pick up the donations all participating artists are collecting for the NDG Community Council, which funds various artistic projects in the neighbourhood. They have fewer shows scheduled in the final time slots each day, so the final shows in each area will serve as defacto local closing shows.
With over 100 acts, the festival clearly has grown, though that wasn’t by design. “We’re not trying to make it bigger,” Sarah noted, “small shows have their own vibe and that's also nice.” Aurora added: “I think it just has gotten this big organically, and we're not trying to make it more than what it is.” They also actively keep the festival’s shows within the NDG neighbourhood. If they receive a submission from outside the boundaries, they will generally help the artists find a more local porch to host the show. “It needs to be walkable.”
Such a tight focus is clearly appreciated by the community they focus on. “I think the best thing is when people say it's their favorite day of the year,” Aurora commented, “you know what I mean? A lot of people say 'I've been looking forward to this all year', and that's nice.” Sarah added: “Sometimes it's not directed at us, but just kind of like, ‘oh, I met up with this person on my street that I hadn't seen in ages’. Like, people connecting, kind of haphazardly, but in a very joyful environment. And now that it's spring again, ‘I haven't seen my neighbors all winter’. People at Porchfest connecting with other people on their streets. Yeah, that's always nice.”
Porchfest NDG 2023 is Saturday, May 20th and Sunday, May 21st, with Monday, May 22nd as the rain day. Full schedule available at the Porchfest NDG Website.
Photos provided by NDG Porchfest Facebook.
