Knight Foundation supports Art in the Square + PorchRokr to create a vibrant, distinctive setting for community interaction. Below, Jonathan Morschl, one of the organizers, writes about the event, which was held Oct. 12.  

Porches aren’t just for rocking; sometimes they’re for rocking-and-rolling.

That spirit filled the neighborhood of Highland Square in Akron this past weekend when more than 130 musical acts lined the streets to treat thousands of visitors to an eclectic mix of music. A chamber orchestra here. Balkan folk musicians there. Jazz, rock, indie, reggae, blues, country and punk bands were scattered among brick paved streets and dedicated stages.

PorchRokr wasn’t just a musical event, though. It was a new dimension to Art in the Square, an annual festival that showcases local talent. We created a hybrid to broaden the appeal of what was already a popular event. 

The planning began last year when the Highland Square Neighborhood Association came up with this wild notion of a fundraiser for its annual summer art and music festival, which is typically held in late August. A local resident who had attended a porch festival in Cleveland introduced the concept to us.

The idea was to put approximately 30 bands and musical groups—assuming we could convince them to participate—on about 15 residential porches in a small area of Highland Square.

In late February, four of us bundled up and spent more than three hours walking up and down residential streets, noting the addresses of porches we liked. By mid-March, we were dumbfounded to find that 45 bands were willing to join us. With a collective hard swallow, we set out knocking on doors to explain our eclectic concept to our bemused neighbors.

Soon we had more than 60 bands and counting, all asking to play, so we headed out to find more porches. This time the response was somewhat different. Our neighbors had been talking to each other. Yes, of course; we want a couple bands on our porch. Do you have any country bands? Oh, and please talk to the guy at 175 because he has his own band and wants to be part of this.

More than 4,000 enthusiastic people attended our inaugural event in June, convincing us we were onto something big. The event became much more than just a fundraiser for what we considered the “main event” a few months later, Art in the Square.

As the steering committee began the planning for the art festival, which we had since decided to move to October, we were determined to keep the excitement and atmosphere that we had created at PorchRokr.

When we debuted the hybrid Art in the Square + PorchRokr website and opened the registration pages, the response was overwhelming. We had a final count of 150 musical acts and 156 exhibitors. Many of the bands agreed to perform at their own expense, acknowledging the buzz from the June PorchRokr event.

What emerged this past weekend was a true community event. Alongside the bands, professional artists and vendors, we witnessed: a neighborhood kid selling hotdogs to fund summer camp; a community organization that organized a “kids corner” with arts and crafts; countless yard sales; residents discovering streets they had never walked down before; and neighbors meeting people they had never met.

Our volunteer team for Art in the Square + PorchRokr counted more than 5,500 visitors throughout the day, shopping in the four main exhibitor areas, listening to bands and roaming through Highland Square.

From the first foray into the neighborhood scouting porches and vendor locations to the final performance in the back yard of a residence, we were humbled by the amount of support and kindness our volunteers received as we created this event. The hospitality and gracious spirit is why we choose to live here.

It’s too early to know for certain what form the festival will take next year, but we’ve crafted a blueprint for something wonderfully magical. We can’t wait to bring all of the elements together again and rock the porches of Highland Square.