Uptown Porchfest returns to the Wedge for the third consecutive year this Saturday, August 16th. Over the course of the afternoon, 78 musical acts will perform free shows on 35 front lawns and porches in the neighborhood. Southwest Voices spoke with members of the organizing team and a few Porchfest hosts and performers to find out how they make Uptown Porchfest happen.  

Start with a little confidence

Porchfest has been a nationwide phenomenon since its conception in Ithaca, N.Y. in 2007, and Minneapolis neighborhoods like Kingfield and Powderhorn have each had their annual Porchfest events for over a decade. When Lisa Martelly and her friend Amy Goldstein decided to bring Porchfest to Uptown in 2023, they were largely running on inspiration from the success of other Porchfests around the country, a lot of confidence, and not much else, says Martelly. “Pulling it together, especially the first year, was so ragtag,” she says, but that inaugural event provided a foundation for growth through each successive year. Since 2023, the number of performers and host venues at Uptown Porchfest has more than doubled.

Build your team

No one gets paid to participate in any aspect of Porchfest (although the performers do accept tips), which encourages that “ragtag” spirit. Martelly now works with a volunteer team of four to run the behind-the-scenes elements of Porchfest. Ahead of the 2023 event, Kristin Gill emailed Martelly to say, “Hey, this is so sick. How can I help?” Gill says. “And she told me to pick up trash if I saw it.” That experience was enough for Gill to want to join the volunteer organizing team in 2024. 

The group splits up tasks like securing permits, designing shirts for the event, and tracking host and performer information through meticulously kept spreadsheets. 

Get the neighborhood involved

Kristi Granacher has lived in the Wedge for more than 20 years and has hosted a Porchfest stage at her home every year since 2023. She says her porch has always been a central gathering place for family and friends, so when she saw that Porchfest was coming to Uptown, she jumped at the chance to extend the space to the neighborhood.

“Offering up my porch is a small way to help build community. It feels good to see so many neighbors out on their porches, in their yards, walking and biking the neighborhood and listening to live music,” Granacher says. She takes the opportunity to turn her Porchfest stage into a party, barbecuing with friends while they watch the shows. 

A lot of neighborhood effort went into producing this year’s Porchfest beyond venue hosts. Two blocks of Bryant Ave. will be closed for the event, a first for Uptown Porchfest. City regulations require 75% of residents on the block to approve the closure, which Martelly says required a lot of knocking  and sought approval from neighbors. 

Local businesses also joined in to round out the event. Mueller Park will be the festival’s home base as in past years, and a second gathering spot will open in the parking lot by Disco Death and Twin Town Fitness. Local restaurants like Lu’s Sandwiches and Tii Cup will bring food trucks to keep festival audiences well fed. 

Curate your lineup

Porchfest organizers say they had far more bands apply this year than hosts could accommodate. They wanted to create a well-rounded lineup that would appeal to the variety of audiences that come to Uptown Porchfest, not just their small group. South Minneapolis culture being what it is, Gill quips that they had to severely limit the number of punk bands they accepted. 

“If one of them lives in the Wedge, that’s really big,” Martelly says. “We don't have a lot of women, so we get really excited when there’s women in bands. There are all these factors that we try to use to put together an event that is really for everyone.”

Organizers say that novelty is important in keeping Uptown Porchfest exciting. “I think it's our first year with any banjo at all,” Martelly says. Less than half of the bands in this year’s lineup have played at Uptown Porchfest before, according to Martelly. 

“I've heard from bands how great of a time they have, how great of an opportunity it is,” Martelly says.” So even if there’s a band that was really great, I also want to share that opportunity with other bands.”

Set yourself up well for next year

Since the festival runs on a volunteer team and minimal costs, Martelly says that Uptown Porchfest has managed to make some profit each year through merch sales and grants. Still, she says the current model they have is “unsustainable,” largely due to the overwhelming amount of work that it takes from a small group of people who are doing this for fun in their spare time. 

Martelly jokes that her role on the organizing team is to be the “knowledge bottleneck,” the person who knows all the little details that they might not find in a spreadsheet. 

“Whenever people want to change things, like someone's birthday is on Porchfest or some drummer has to drop out,” it’s useful to have someone like Martelly on the team “who knows everybody, who knows people’s addresses by heart,” Gill says. 

Martelly talks about building some kind of software that would ease the overload. More than anything, she says about her mental trove of Porchfest knowledge, “I want to release it so that anybody could plan Porchfest.”

Uptown Porchfest is on Saturday, August 16 from 1-5 p.m. at various locations in the Wedge neighborhood.