Porchfest LA Eastside: Free Shows on Los Feliz Porches

Before there was a festival, Hélène performed monthly cabaret shows on her porch on Franklin Avenue. Neighbors gathered on a Thursday night once a month. “It was just novel and wonderful and gave people light for an evening and however long.”

She heard about Porchfest from musician friends in Montreal, where she is from, and decided to try a neighborhood-wide version here. She put out a small ad around Los Feliz, Vermont and Hillhurst, and hosts said yes. “That's how it began: really magical, full of magical people doing magical things.”

The first year had 20 porches, the second had 25, and this year there are 30.

Each porch reflects its host, so no two feel the same. The festival schedule describes what many porches might feel and sound like. There is a rockabilly folk country porch, where Hélène suggests you “Bring your bouffant and your pointy cowboy boots, and bring your sing-along face.” There is also a coffee house porch with shadow puppetry, poetry, stand-up and synth pop.

She encourages people to explore all of them, “but the most important thing you're going to get when you walk in is a welcome to a stranger in the community and a feeling of being a part of humanity.”

Her favorite memory is not tied to any one garden: “it's just standing in a garden with people that you don't know, enthralled by somebody offering their art to you.” As she puts it, “Nobody's being paid to be here. The audience isn't either.”

Hélène credits the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council and its Cultural Affairs Department, which supported the idea from the beginning and handled the work with the city. The Los Feliz Improvement Association sponsors a porch every year. Longtime hosts include Cynthia Freeman, who has been with the festival for three years.

This year Dawn Socha and Ryan Socha joined as E2M, the nonprofit that made charitable donations possible, and Hélène is clear about where that money goes: “Nobody pockets any money at all.” A donation from John Deutsch paid for posters, lawn signs, postcards and media, and David Bridel of The Clown School helped fund posters for the Eastside. Leisure Hydration is providing drinks on the porches.

More visibility, mostly. With E2M on board, the festival could afford to let more people know about it. Hosts who have done this for three years are also better at it, so it runs a little more smoothly, and it is bigger. Porchfest has also grown to a West Side edition, with Culver City and Mar Vista taking part.

Hélène also sees it spreading in other ways. Ryan Socha started a weekly music jam at the Desert Rose, and Jennifer Harper, a musician who has hosted for three years, created her own porch event this year. Her hope for everyone who comes is short: “I hope people will leave full, and I hope people will leave hopeful and positive, and pass it on.”

Start by going. “Attending is the greatest volunteerism that you can do.”

Beyond that, Hélène plans to list volunteer roles on the festival website, including help with the website, media and promotion, putting up posters, checking on porches, and video, photography and documentation. If you have another idea, she wants to hear it. Following the festival on Instagram at porchfestla also helps, since enough followers would let the team broadcast live from the porches.

Her closing words go to the neighborhood itself: “Thanks for being a community that welcomes cultural experiments into their very homes.”

Saturday, October 17, 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM, at Porches across Los Feliz, Silver Lake and East Hollywood. Free. Every detail, a map and a button to add it to your calendar are on the Porchfest LA Eastside event page. For the latest from the organizers, see their site.

See what else is coming up on the Los Feliz events calendar. Hosting something in the neighborhood? Add your event, it is free, and you can ask to be interviewed for a post like this one.

Los Feliz Events comes to you from your neighbors at Rooster Homes, the Los Angeles real estate brokerage led by Brandon S. Arlington and Sarah Arlington.