Tower Porchfest is back in Fresno’s Tower District: how did it all begin?
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Tower Porchfest is coming up at the end of the month – but you can make your plan today to make sure you cover every part of the free event.
Tower Porchfest is a free neighborhood music festival where neighbors volunteer to host bands at their homes, and anyone walking by can stop and enjoy the music.
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Jeremy Hofer is the co-Founder of Tower Porchfest and he says the event has come a long way from when he first thought of it with friends in the Goldstein’s parking lot.
“It was November of 2020 and venues had been shuttered,” Hofer said. “We thought, what if we just had some bands out on our houses?”
Hofer is himself a musician and says being cooped up during the pandemic planted a seed in him that eventually grew to become Tower Porchfest.
Hofer says he and his friends started a Facebook group and through word of mouth built the foundations of their event. By April 2021, Hofer says Tower Porchfest had 42 porches signed up with 65 bands.
Members of the group volunteered their porches and bands interested in performing could contact the porches directly.
“We start putting out the call for porches in January, porches sign up and we start getting information out to them.”
Porches are in complete control of the line-ups and he and the Porchfest Organizing Committee work out the logistics of the line-ups, Hofer says.
Whether it’s talking to vendors, talking to sponsors, or even making sure no two porches are playing across the street from each other at a given time, Hofer says much of Porchfest’s success can be attributed to the tight-knit nature of the Tower District community.
“I think Tower District is the perfect neighborhood for this to happen,” Hofer said. “It has such a high concentration of artists, musicians, and residents who are down to support the arts.”
The event stretches across the Tower District and boasts 75 porches and 280 bands.
This year, Hofer says they partnered with Fresno City College to keep traffic out of the streets by opening up the campus’ parking lot to the public.
“So people can drive in and ride their bikes into the neighborhood,” Hofer said, “this year we have a bike station and volunteers are going to help people fix up their bikes if they get a flat.”
Hofer says these amenities are just a small part of ensuring an enjoyable experience at Porchfest, but a lot of work goes into ensuring safety as well.
“Each house to sign off and say they have the right to host,” Hofer says, “we don’t want anyone from out of town renting an Airbnb, we’re going to shut that down.”
Hofer also says no sale of alcohol is permitted at any venue and public consumption is banned as well. He also says that event volunteers and police will be on patrol helping make sure everyone is having a safe and fun time.
To see the Tower Porchfest interactive, go to towerporchfest.org.
