Athens Porchfest
ATHENS-PORCHFEST– Thousands of people joined together at different porches across Historic Athens neighborhoods for the fourth annual Athens Porchfest on Sunday, Oct. 2. Bands and solo acts perform for spectators from the Athens area and visitors. By Catherine Vrolijk 512 words, pictures, videos.
Two Cobbham residences are used as a stage for the Grawks and Dooley DGD to play their sets. Bands from all over Athens perform in the fourth annual Porchfest. (Photos/Catherine Vrolijk)
An estimated 13,000 patrons joined together to commemorate the fourth annual Porchfest
this past Sunday and enjoyed music from 155 performances on 150 different porches across six Historic Athens neighborhoods.
Friends and families walked or cycled from house to house to catch their favorite bands, or listen to the tunes that caught their ears. A sense of community was visible from both the spectators and the people hosting on their porches.
Savannah Jordan, a spectator who traveled all the way from Walton County just for the event, sat and listened to the music with her dog.
She said, “It definitely does feel like everybody’s like out here to watch and support all the local people.”
Cobbham resident India Rows was excited to offer her porch this year for The Grawks to perform. Rows has attended Porchfest activities in the past, but decided to host for the first time this year. She said, “It’s all the community. I love it.”
India’s son Harry, 10, was especially excited to see The Grawks perform for their first time at this event on his front porch.
“We’re friends with the band and my son Harry really wanted to see them play, but they only play at nighttime at bars.” Hosting their porch for the event was a special way for Harry to watch his favorite band,” India said.
Steve Phillips, lead singer of the punk rock band was also excited to play during the day.
Phillips said, “This is super fun because we don’t often get to play during the day where it’s like younger people.”
He explained that their audience is at “Nowhere Bar at midnight.”
The performers can all agree that this is an event that is special in many ways for them. Phillips said, “It’s meaningful. The Athens community musically is just a wonderful community.” Ashton Dooley of Dooley DGD said it is his “favorite festival personally, ever.”
Dooley, a guitarist from Wilmington, North Carolina, has performed with his group Dooley and Baldwin at Porchfest in previous years, but debuted his solo act for the first time at this year's festival. He said, “This is my first time ever playing anything as a solo act.”
He was thankful for the supportive crowd as this was “definitely a new experience for sure.” He said he has been performing for 10 years as a duo as well as playing in a full band, but in terms of a solo act, that is “totally new.”
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Dooley says that Porchfest “means a lot” to him and is a great opportunity for people to perform that otherwise wouldn’t be able to. He said “I’ve done open mics before, but you know, never done a full set, so you know to be able to put all that stuff together, it was really phenomenal.”
Athens is a city known for its music, and Porchfest is an event that brings the community together in a special way. Dooley says it best, “There are a lot of great things that are happening in this town.”
The event coverage assignment really allowed me to gain more interviewing experience and become more comfortable talking to people I didn't know. I think this story was newsworthy because Porchfest was such a big event for the Athens community, especially for the music beat.