PorchFest comes to Sebastopol

On Sept. 14, 30 bands will be playing their hearts out on South High Street in Sebastopol's first-ever PorchFest

Greg Ceniceroz thought Sebastopol needed a PorchFest. So he decided to create one. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

Sebastopol music impresario Greg “Ceni” Ceniceroz is organizing PorchFest Sebastopol, inspired by similar events in cities across the country. The event will take place on Saturday, Sept. 14, from noon to 6 pm on South High Street. Thirty local bands will be performing from stages in people’s front yards, driveways and porches.

“I’ve been to a couple PorchFests in my life,” Ceni said. “I played with my band in one in San Francisco. People were talking about the Napa Porchfest a lot last year, and I decided, ‘Hey, Sebastopol is kind of perfect for that, and someone should do it here. I heard myself say that a couple times—someone’s got to do it, who’s going to do it?—so I just said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll do it.’”

“I have been involved with local music for a long time,” Ceni said. “I run the open mic event at HopMonk Sebastopol every Tuesday—and have for eight years. I also put on my own shows. I know a lot of local musicians. So I figured, like, who else is going to do this? I’m kind of perfect for it. So I decided to put it out there and talk to some friends about it. And people were just super enthusiastic about it.”

PorchFest originally started in Ithaca, New York, in 2007.

“There have been hundreds of PorchFests since then,” Ceni said, “and I just kind of determined that our town needs one because we’re a music-loving town, we’ve got porches, and we like to walk around and build community.”

The current plan is to set up stages on five properties on High Street and to have six bands scheduled on each stage. He said the residents of those properties are also musicians and will be playing as part of that rotation. See the full musical line-up here.

Ceni isn’t creating this event on his own of course. He’s working with his friend Joe Halpin, a music lover, music collector, and self-described wanna-be drummer, who has hosted house concerts to promote local musicians for 20 years. Elizabeth Beaty is in charge of sponsorships for the event. Ceni has even gone to the trouble of setting up a nonprofit organization for PorchFest Sebastopol.

He is currently awaiting permission from the city to close down two sections of High Street for half the day—from Palm to Maple and from Maple to Calder—leaving the intersecting streets open for traffic to pass through.

There is no seating at this event. Audiences stand on the sidewalk or in the street to enjoy the music.

While the stages are fully booked, Ceni said he is still open to adding more porch acts if people have their own equipment.

Find out more about Porchfest Sebastopol. Reach out to Ceni at ceni@sebastopolporchfest.org.