SIGNUPS OPEN FOR BINGHAMTON PORCHFEST 2017

The 3rd Annual Binghamton Porchfest takes to the streets of Binghamton’s West Side on August, 27th, and you’re invited to be a part of it! Signups for interested bands, hosts, vendors, and sponsors (oh, please please please be a sponsor!) open at binghamtonporchfest.com the first week of June. Signups will be open through August 4th, at which point the already overworked editor of this very publication will throw on his volunteer hat and tackle the mammoth task of scheduling over 100 musical acts to play on a few dozen porches for seven hours.

For those unacquainted with Binghamton Porchfest, it goes like this: It goes like this: Binghamton Porchfest is a completely free celebration of community, music, and togetherness, taking place in Binghamton’s West Side neighborhood for the third year in a row on Sunday, August 27th, 2017. It is the grassroots collaborative effort of hundreds of individual musicians and dozens of resident hosts of the West Side neighborhood of Binghamton (specifically the area including and directly surrounding the historic Abel Bennett Tract), who get together for seven hours on the last Sunday of every August to boogie down with their neighbors to the sounds of over 100 musical acts, presented on the front porches, stoops, and lawns of select homes and businesses.

Based on a grassroots, decentralized festival model created by residents of Ithaca, NY in 2007—which has since led to over 75 similar independently operated festivals across the US and Canada—Binghamton Porchfest turns stoops into stages, yards into venues, neighbors into promoters, and the West Side into a gigantic celebration of community togetherness. Kind of like a giant block party, but with more blocks, more bands, and less mac salad sitting in the heat. Dozens of residents offer up the use of their front porches to hundreds of different musicians who perform over the course of seven hours to thousands of attendees who spend their afternoon meandering the neighborhood by foot, bike, fancy glowing hoverboard, or unicycle. While it’s happening, the neighborhood is welcome to make of it what they will: in past years, we’ve seen people offer lemonade stands, garage sales, impromptu break dance showcases, and magic shows, just to name a few. Sky’s the limit!

Binghamton Porchfest is organized each year as a gift to the community by Triple Cities Carousel. It’s going to be a real hoot, but only if you get involved! Check out binghamtonporchfest.com for info on how to be a part! We’ll see you in August!