It was a love for live music and for their hometown that inspired Quincy City Councilor Ian Cain and Woodward School headmaster Walter Hubley to launch Porchfest Quincy two years ago. Modeled off a popular event that takes place in Somerville, Porchfest Quincy is a free public music event that hosts numerous performances on porches around the city. The festival has grown from 70 bands and 43 porch locations in its first year, to 110 bands and 70 porch locations in 2017.
QUINCY – From dining to concerts to movies: al fresco is the way to go in the summer. Taking the idea of unconventional venues to a whole new level, local bands flocked to the porches of Quincy neighborhoods on Saturday to share their music in an outdoor setting.
“PorchFest is so fun,” said Quincy resident Shari Kurtzman, who danced with Abington’s Dan Kent on Prospect Avenue to the music of Drunken Logic pianist Jake Cassman. “Our family is visiting from New York, so we wanted to bring them to something local and fun.”
By Mary Whitfill
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jun 20, 2017 at 3:16 PM
QUINCY – After a first event that organizer Walter Hubley said surpassed all his expectations, PorchFest will return to Quincy this weekend for an afternoon of live music, sunshine neighborliness.
The event invites locals to volunteer their porches, driveways and front yards to be makeshift venues for live bands. From there, bands volunteer their time and play sets while neighbors wonder the streets and listen to every type of music from country to pop, classical to reggae, and jazz to Latin tunes.
By Alejandro Serrano GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 15, 2017
Walter Hubley and Ian Cain were shooting ideas back and forth two years ago, trying to come up with ways to stimulate more community engagement.
The two reminisced about the sense of community they felt growing up in Quincy.
Then it occurred to them: Who doesn’t like music? Cain, now a city councilor in Quincy, went to Somerville’s 2013 PorchFest, in which musicians performed on porches and in front yards, and figured a similar event in Quincy could help spark the engagement he and Hubley longed for.
The event will feature more than 100 musical acts in its second iteration.
By Sean Philip Cotter
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY – If you either want to offer your front lawn up as a stage or you are looking to stand on a stranger’s porch and sing, there’s good news for you.
The PorchFest Quincy event returns for a second year from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 24, and is currently seeking participants
By Kerriann Kelleher
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY – Walking from the Wollaston School on Beale Street and along Prospect avenue, neighbors could stop and listen to a punk band, an Americana group, and even some orchestra members. If they got tired of listening, visitors could just take out their blue maps and follow them to the other 67 bands playing at Quincy’s first-ever PorchFest on Saturday.
“I’ve gotten so many high fives today,” Wally Hubley, President of the Wollaston Hills Neighborhood Association, said.
By Patrick Ronan
The Patriot Ledger
The original lead singer of the Dropkick Murphys is one of the musicians who could perform at Quincy’s first-ever PorchFest event this June.
