PorchFestKC set to transform these Midtown neighborhoods into a one-day, walk-up music festival
September 28, 2023 | Nikki Overfelt Chifalu
After a three-year hiatus, the original PorchFestKC — a music festival Kathryn Golden likens to stumbling on a neighborhood block party and being allowed to stay — is returning. And it’ll play out with a digital upgrade this year, said Golden.
Launched in 2015, PorchFestKC — the city’s trend-setting, porch-packed community music celebration — will once again take over two Midtown neighborhoods: Roanoke and Valentine, starting at noon Saturday, Oct. 14.
Kathryn Golden, PorchFestKC
“It’s just a fun event and I like being part of it,” Golden said of her decision to revive the event after the pandemic. “I think it creates some great community goodwill.”
“My joke is that I have an even number of posters on the wall because this will be No. 6,” she added. “So there was a gap that I needed to fill.”
From the archives: Check out this one-woman act with stages across Midtown
About 135 bands — mostly from the Kansas City area and the Midwest — are set to perform on 49 porches/stages from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 14.
“The goal of the event is to showcase music in Kansas City,” Golden noted. “The arts are a huge part of the community. And PorchFestKC builds community in a non-traditional way.”
“There’s people of all ages — it’s a family friendly event — and it’s accessible to everybody because it’s free,” she continued.
Click here to learn more about PorchFestKC.
With 15 to 25 bands playing every hour, the organizers of PorchFestKC have created an app this year to help people plan out their day, Golden shared. The app includes the schedule, maps, links for performers, locations of food trucks, and parking tips.
“I’ve always said there’s two ways to tackle this,” she explained. “One is to do a deep dive on all the bands and figure out — ‘I’m gonna go here for 30 minutes and here for 30 minutes’ — and just plan it out. And the other approach is just take your camp chair and show up and just wander and see who you can discover.”
“Different people are wired in different ways,” she added. “One might appeal to one and drive the other nuts. So for those people that are planners, I think this app will help.”
Click here to explore the PorchFestKC app.
Bands and solo artists perform at PorchFestKC — sponsored in large part by the Neighborhood Tourism Development Fund — play for tips, Golden noted, so the app will also help with simplifying the tip process. Although she is still encouraging attendees to bring a pocket full of small bills to tip each band they encounter, the app will also have Venmo links for many of the bands, Golden said.
“If you’re there for six hours and you saw only six bands and you gave each five bucks, that’s basically $30 to enjoy the festival, which is really cheap,” she continued. “I would love everyone to feel ownership. Their part of making PorchFestKC great is helping the bands be rewarded for their efforts.”
RELATED: PorchFestKC activates Midtown neighborhoods with stoop-to-street music (Photos)
Check out a brief photo gallery from the 2019 PorchFestKC event. below, then keep reading about this year’s headlining acts.
Joshua James
Although most of the bands are from Kansas City and the Midwest, Golden said some performers are coming from New Mexico, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Artists include Joshua James, a singer-songwriter from Conway, Arkansas; Lisa Loves Carie, a disco-post-punk duo from Kansas City; and Carlton Rashad, a soul singer also from KC.
“There will be a lot of music that will be new to local music fans,” she added.
This is the third year the Roanoke neighborhood has hosted the event and the second time for Valentine, said Golden.
“The neighborhoods that are hosting it seem to have a lot of pride about being the chosen ones,” she said. “It’s fun to showcase the homes. These homes are historic in most cases.”
Parking can be tricky in the neighborhoods, Golden noted, so the organizers are suggesting attendees take advantage of a free parking garage immediately north of Char Bar in Westport, which is just three blocks from the southeast corner of the event. Street parking on Southwest Trafficway also will be available within the event boundaries. Golden has been working to make sure that those parking lanes are marked safely on the busy street, she said.
2023 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
EquipmentShare launches new flagship store with $21M investment in Grain Valley
A Missouri unicorn is building impact even closer to Kansas City, opening its new 49,000-square-foot Midwest hub for construction and industrial work in eastern Jackson County. The project reflects an investment of more than $21 million by Columbia, Missouri-based EquipmentShare, said Jabbok Schlacks, CEO and co-founder, describing the property costs, value of equipment and salaries…
KC GIFT’s $100K grant — its largest-ever — aims to help boost Black-owned job creator
A newly opened $100,000 grant represents a significant step in Kansas City GIFT’s mission to close the racial wealth gap — investing in Black-owned businesses that have the potential to become significant employers and economic drivers in their communities, said Brandon Calloway. “We exist to right the wrongs of the past and create the economic…
They just wanted someone to notice: 10 years (and an exit) later, the first founders featured in Startland News have come 360
Editor’s note: Startland News — officially launched May 4, 2015 — is marking its 10-year anniversary this spring. As part of this observance, the nonprofit newsroom is taking a look back at pivotal moments in its decade-long run, as well as impact along the way. Longtime editor-in-chief Tommy Felts caught up with Stuart Ludlow and David…
Entrepreneur flexes her creative strengths into visibility for Kansas City’s lupus warriors
Keisha Jordan refuses to be a wallflower in the fight against lupus, she said. The founder of Kansas City-based creative home design brand Complex Flavors, Jordan is working to raise awareness this month with her own story as an entrepreneur-turned-lupus warrior. “We just want everybody to know that Kansas City has not forgotten about the…