Words by Jennifer Kornegay
Photos by Nathan Zucker, Westhaven Porchfest, Mark Olencki, CM Graves Photography
In the South, our region’s renowned hospitality shows up and shows off in multiple forms. But our warm invitations to “come on over” beam brightest on front porches, where friends and family join us for casual, often impromptu porch parties to sip sweet tea or porch punch (yes, this is a thing) while swaying on a porch swing and swapping news. A few of the South’s friendliest cities have taken the concept to a new level, holding Porchfest events each fall. These musical welcome mats feature local bands and musicians playing their tunes from people’s porches and front yards, turning entire neighborhoods into roving concerts. Songs floating in the autumn air, plus lively food and drink, make for a fun outing. But the community they create hits a true high note.
Westhaven Porchfest
Franklin, Tennessee
Sept. 20, 2025
Nashville, Tennessee—Franklin’s big neighbor to the north—makes a lot of noise, but every mid-September since 2012 the small town’s Westhaven neighborhood gives the music city a run for its money with the toe-tapping, shoulder-swaying, sing-along sound waves rolling off the porches of 25 houses around Franklin. This year, the event will once again take full advantage of its homes’ wide, welcoming porches, transforming the spaces into stages, which host bands representing an array of musical styles. The day’s porch performances entertain approximately 6,000 to 8,000 people and lead up to a large evening concert at the Westhaven Town Center. While most of the fun is free, the final show is ticketed and raises money for the nonprofit Westhaven Foundation and its Excellence in Education Program, which provides college scholarships and supports local schools.
It’s a good time for a good cause, and sometimes, surprise guests amp up the appeal, as Westhaven Foundation co-founder Mark McCutcheon explains: “We’re close to Nashville, so you never know who might show up.” Amy Grant popped up on a porch one year; so did Edwin McCain. “Walker Hayes started playing on a porch here years ago before going on to be one of our main paid acts,” McCutcheon says.
Hampton Heights Porchfest
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Sept. 28, 2025
Last year, when Hampton Heights Porchfest organizers decided to hold the event for the first time, naysayers told them they’d be lucky to draw a few hundred people. When the day was done and the final notes faded into the evening air, close to 1,250 folks went on their way after soaking up every second and every sound, the huge turnout a triumphant anthem for Spartanburg’s oldest neighborhood.
“It’s one of only two historic districts preserved in the city,” says Jennie Gilbert, one of the event’s organizers. “The event brings the city together to celebrate this place and its history and why that history matters.”
This year, the tune trumpeted by Hampton Heights Porchfest is “Come back and see us!” Twelve local bands will grace six porches (two bands per porch) playing blues, folk, pop, and more as fans dig into both savory and sweet eats from local food trucks and sip cocktails from The Drink Machine, Spartanburg’s mobile bar, which designs custom libations for the event. Last year, as a local choir’s voices streamed through the stately, white columns girding a 1913 neoclassical porch, a pop-up rainstorm threatened to dampen spirits. The opposite occurred.
“The crowd started to scatter, but the choir kept singing and sounded even more inspired,” Gilbert says. “It was a special moment.”
Oakhurst Porchfest
Decatur, Georgia
Oct. 11, 2025
As Scott Doyon thinks back on 10 years of the Porchfest he co-founded in his Oakhurst neighborhood, no single porch or band stands out. The melody dominating his memories is a feeling. “Everything I experience at Porchfest is a reflection of someone else doing their thing, expressing themselves,” he says. “We are putting a blank canvas out there and inviting all these artists to make their mark on it. It’s like a musical mural with community collaboration.”
The description is fitting, as the event came to be in response to a call from the Decatur Arts Alliance. When park renovations put a pause on the Decatur Arts Alliance’s annual arts fair, executive director Angie Macon was looking for something to put in its place. “I had been toying with the idea of a Porchfest after learning of the one in Ithaca, New York [the original Porchfest],” Doyon says. “So I told Angie, and together, we co-founded it.”
While the heart of the event beats from approximately 220 porches holding a blend of locals and groups from other areas of the South and playing “dad rock,” bluegrass, Americana, and a bit of almost every other genre too, community connections extend beyond the bands. The event’s mission is to be “a day of radical generosity and goodwill.” Fulfilling that meant avoiding commercialization, so no food trucks or other big-brand vendors participate in the event. Instead, organizers invite area nonprofits and community groups to fundraise by feeding the day’s 5,000 to 10,000 attendees.
“We’ve got groups selling burgers and doing bake sales, all to raise money for their good work,” Doyon says. He loves watching the enterprising kids who set up lemonade stands or roll their beverage-filled, red wagons through the crowds hawking their wares. “They’re really clever about it,” he says.
A few of the South’s friendliest cities have taken the concept to a new level, holding Porchfest events each fall.
Historic Athens Porchfest
Athens, Georgia
Oct. 19, 2025
Come October, SEC football isn’t the only action rockin’ Athens. The college town’s Porchfest scores major points and makes a big splash with 200 musicians—a mix of local up-and-comers and more well-known acts—playing on 200 porches spread across seven historic neighborhoods. Historic Athens, an educational organization dedicated to raising awareness of the city’s history and culture, began the event in 2019, and it hosted approximately 25,000 people last year. They come for a diverse lineup of punk, hip-hop, gospel, folk, and other acts. “The common thread is it’s all family friendly,” Denise Sunta, engagement coordinator for Historic Athens, says.
They stay for the last jam, a special concert featuring the mayor of Athens collaborating with the mayor of Winterville, Athens’ sister city, on the porch of a beloved artist’s studio. “It’s usually a mostly acoustic set, guitars, and kinda folksy,” Sunta says. “It’s a special moment highlighting the power of our unity.”
Brewton Porchfest
Brewton, Alabama
Nov. 1, 2025
In early November, Porchfest in tiny Brewton (population: 5,300), brings approximately 1,000 people to one of its oldest residential areas to hear homegrown talent guitar-pickin’, country-crooning and belting out rock ballads from the porches of historic homes, such as the elegant, wedding cake-esque, curved portico of the 1903 Downing House, which hosts the final nighttime concert. Debi Pugh with the Brewton Chamber of Commerce praises how the event promotes Brewton’s musical legacy, including a favorite native son William Lee Golden of the beloved Oakridge Boys, who performed at Porchfest a few years back: “It was wonderful to have him here, and we got people from all over the country for that.”
It may be small, but Brewton’s well of talent is deep, Pugh adds. “We really never have to go outside of our hometown to get our porch acts, but for our final act, we do try to bring in a bigger name,” she says.
The event amplifies town camaraderie — one of the planners’ initial goals. “It’s almost like a homecoming every year,” Pugh says, but a connection with other Porchfests is at play, too. “When we decided to do a Porchfest, we visited the Westhaven event in Tennessee. They were so kind and shared their ideas with us.”
