By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The porches of Eberly Avenue neighborhood were alive with the sound of music Saturday as Porchfest BG celebrated its second year.
A dozen bands played on porches, in garages, and inside Arlyn’s Good Beer throughout the afternoon. Music ranged from show tunes and “Looney Tunes” from a woodwind quartet on a verandah to straight up rock ‘n roll by Milk on the Rocks to the traditional Irish tunes; from Illegal Smiles which packed a couple dozen John Prine tunes into its 40 minute set to originals by Freight Street, Moths in the Attic, Tree No Leaves, and others.
“I’m always impressed by the wealth of talent in this town,” said Lee Hakel who was in attendance.
Below, people take in the Irish sounds of Toraigh.
Brian Young brought the idea of outdoor neighborhood music with him when he moved to Bowling Green from Dayton. It was a way to have live entertainment at a time when people couldn’t get together inside venues.
So he founded Eberly Entertainment Group with neighbor Mary Dennis and Bob Midden. Last summer that committee with a host of other volunteers staged a few individual concerts that culminated with the first Porchfest BG.
That drew an estimated 150 people total. While the free flow of listeners makes it difficult to get a head count, on Saturday each performance, which overlapped, drew about 100 or more.
Below, crowd listens to the band.
The festival was longer, running four hours, and featured more bands.
For Devonte Stovall, the bass player with Freight Street, this was a valuable avenue to help relaunch the music scene. The quintet first started, he said, about five years ago, and released its first album in early 2020, but couldn’t promote because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Now Freight Street is releasing singles on Spotify and iTunes. The band closed its set with “Drivin’,” its newest release.
The bands agreed to play the festival for free, but each had a donation box out front.
Devin, a visitor for Toledo, who didn’t want his last name used, said he wished he knew that before coming, so he could have brought smaller bills. He was attracted to Porchfest by a Facebook post and didn’t really know what to expect. He was surprised by the range of styles of music.
Dylan McMillan and Colton Buettner, both former BGSU students, came back to town to hear their friend Tom Vasey, of Freight Street.
McMillan said he liked how natural the event felt.
Buettner was impressed with how neighbors cooperated to get things done.
Bringing the neighborhood together is one of the Porchfest’s missions. One household had a yard sale table set up, and at the other end of the street some kids had set up a lemonade stand, which, in a sign of the times, accepted Venmo.
However, one neighbor was vociferous in his opposition at a recent city council meeting, and on Saturday another neighbor wanted to make sure the BG Independent reporter knew that not everyone was pleased with the festival.
[RELATED: Porchfest organizers take steps to ensure neighborly event]
Noting the BGSU drumline marching down Eberly to kick off the festival, she said other neighbors weren’t supposed to be able to hear the music, and the street wasn’t supposed to be blocked.
The parade, though, was brief, and no other acts approached the decibels of the drum line’s cadences.
Throughout the afternoon the organizers reminded listeners to be stay off yards not involved in the festival, including those marked with yellow police tape, and not to carry alcoholic beverages off private property.
A city police officer was on site throughout the afternoon. There wasn’t much for him to do, though, except enjoy the music.
