Uptown Porchfest rocks the south Minneapolis neighborhood, brings community together

In the time it took post-modern rock trio Stay At Home Astronaut to play their 45-minute set, 7-year-old Rosie O’Hara recouped the money her mother spent on refreshments to stock the lemonade stand she staffed with her cousin Dottie.

The O’Hara family lent their south Minneapolis house Saturday to two bands for Uptown Porchfest, a neighborhood music festival celebrating its second year.

“We have to try to get to $100,” Rosie said, adding that she’s hoping to buy a “small car” — or something like a Power Wheels miniature Jeep — with the proceeds.

Porchfest brought 68 bands to 33 stages in Uptown over the course of five hours. Some musicians set up on lawns, others on stoops and porches. Businesses like Hi-Flora and Sencha Tea Bar also hosted bands.

Co-founder Lisa Martelly, 30, hatched the idea based on her fond recollections of Massachusetts’ Somerville Porchfest, a community event she frequented when she lived in Boston. She and her friend Amy Goldstein, 30, launched the inaugural festival last August.

“Bands were way easier to find than porches,” Martelly said. “That was true especially the first year, when they didn’t know what they were getting into.”

The festival drew food trucks and a few other vendors this year, including a fortune teller who set up shop in Mueller Park. Organizing became akin to a full-time job, which is why Martelly and Goldstein recruited their friend Kristin Gill, 24, to help put it together this year. All three women live in the neighborhood and were keen to buck the rampant notion that Uptown is on life support.

They say the festival is serving a need for Minnesotans in their 20s and 30s, particularly folks seeking community in the wake of pandemic-induced disruptions to neighborhood establishments and live events. It’s also a way to showcase local music and provide Twin Cities-based artists with a platform to find new fans.

“It’s the kind of thing people are craving,” Goldstein said.

Stay At Home Astronaut guitarist Nick Chavez, 30, said the city’s live music scene is still in the midst of a rebound since bars and other regular venues have found themselves adjusting to a post-pandemic world.

“We’re happy when one person can come to a show,” said Chavez, who also serves as the band’s vocalist. “It feels like things are getting back to normal.”

Like nearly every other act that performed for the throngs gathered Saturday throughout Uptown, Chavez thanked the crowd after Stay At Home Astronaut’s set and encouraged folks to patronize the other musicians scattered throughout the neighborhood. Porchfest organizers couldn’t afford to pay the musicians, though they set up QR codes for visitors to toss a buck or two into a virtual tip jar.

That pay-what-you-can approach is similar to the pricing structure at the lemonade stand in front of the O’Hara house. A few festivalgoers dropped as much as $5 into the tip jar for refreshments. Others bemoaned the fact that they don’t carry cash, but the girls offered them a glass anyway.

Festival organizers say the community spirit that Porchfest has fostered in Uptown has made the work worth it.

“It’s been a great way to get people connected,” Gill said.