Punk/avant-garde outfit Trash Fart is shown playing in front of Electroshield in 2023. The band returns for this year's reprisal of Porchfest. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
After a long wait, Porchfest returns to Yellow Springs next weekend
- Published: September 12, 2025
After a year off, Yellow Springs Porchfest will once again turn porches, patios and lawns into stages on Saturday, Sept. 20, from noon to 7 p.m.
The village’s homegrown festival of free, neighborhood concerts hasn’t been staged since 2023; as the News reported last year, the effort — co-founded by Brittany Baum and Rachel Price in 2018 — has always been fueled by the efforts of local volunteers. Last year, the small group of residents who shepherded past events were simply burned out, and cast their net to find a nonprofit agency to take the beloved event under its wing.
This year, Porchfest’s founders found what they were fishing for in the YS Arts Council. With the event now nestled under the umbrella of the local arts-centered nonprofit, Porchfest is back with fresh energy, an expanded team of volunteers and — for the first time — a part-time paid coordinator, David Seitz, thanks to a grant from the YS Community Foundation.
Seitz and several of this year’s volunteers told the News last week that incorporating a paid coordinator into the mix was a boon to organizing this year’s Porchfest; with Seitz able to focus on the event and its many needs and tasks as his job, it took some pressure off the rest of the volunteers.
Photo by Reilly Dixon
“It’s also really meant that the buck stops here,” Seitz said. “Whenever something isn’t getting done, I’m the one who’s gonna try to do it. But this has been an incredible group of volunteers, and I’ve found that there’s an incredible amount of trust and respect for what we’re doing.”
Seitz added that previous organizers left behind files, contacts and templates, so he wasn’t starting from scratch. Still, he said he’s been learning how to keep things running efficiently in the long run, and with that effort have come new skills and the stretching of new muscles.
“I’ve learned how to use Squarespace, Square and Google Sheets — but some of the biggest struggles have been little things, like finding out who can do what and connecting people,” he said. “But I really see [working as coordinator] as a gift I can give to the community.”
Photo by Reilly Dixon
Even with Seitz’s paid role, volunteers remain the backbone of Porchfest’s structure. Members of the volunteer team — which includes Niki Foor, Niki Sage, Leah Mendenhall, Margi Gay, Joshua Miller, Dan Harker, Evan Miller, Alex Scott and Ellis Jacobs — have pitched in to help with everything from scheduling bands to designing the website to liaising with the Village.
Leah Mendenhall, who has been involved with Porchfest since 2019 as both a volunteer and a performer, said her support of the festival is rooted in the village itself.
“The love of music and community — love of Yellow Springs; that’s it,” she said.
And her institutional memory and knowledge have helped inform the new team of volunteers of what challenges to expect, and what solutions past organizers have found.
Local rock-and-roll outfit Dreadful Rumor tore up the “stage” at Electroshield on South High Street at the 2023 Porchfest. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
That history is particularly useful, the volunteer team said, when it comes to balancing the number of acts with available porches — a feat that has always been tricky. This year, the team narrowed the lineup from nearly 100 applicants to 69 performers across 39 porches, with local acts being given priority.
“We had this long wait list … but we try to keep it as local as we possibly can,” Seitz said.
Requests from porch hosts add another layer of intricacy to the scheduling puzzle. Some porches can only host at certain times of day; some ask for a particular style of music — or, occasionally, request a specific band not be scheduled at their location. Volunteer Niki Foor said she and Margi Gay spent hours poring over spreadsheets to get it right.
“Several hosts said, ‘We want no heavy metal, no Doctor Meat’ — but on the other hand, two different hosts said, ‘We really want Doctor Meat!” Foor said.
Bill Sikes of DOCTOR MEAT. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
After some back and forth, a Phillips Street porch won the bid for DOCTOR MEAT.
Mendenhall said that, in her experience, Porchfest has received overwhelming support from the community, and complaints — typically about noise — have been “few and far between.” The organizing team, Seitz said, has done their best to keep neighbors in mind when it comes to siting particular kinds of music at particular porches.
“But I encourage people to take a look at the map, and if you don’t like the music that’s nearby your house, get out and walk and see your neighbors and go to another place that has the music you like,” he said.
One new addition to Porchfest is this year’s partnership with SunDay, a nationwide effort to celebrate and bring visibility to clean energy efforts. SunDay is the product of a number of grassroots coalitions and organizations, and is being held all over the country the weekend of Sept. 20, to coincide with the Fall Equinox.
Local attorney and volunteer Ellis Jacobs connected Porchfest to SunDay, enabling regional environmental groups and solar providers — including local business Village Solar — to help power a number of Porchfest’s stages with solar panels, battery packs and electric vehicles. Porches powered by solar will be indicated on the Porchfest map, and signs at those locations will give more information.
But much about Porchfest as it returns this year will remain the same — including that the event remains free, with any money raised via sponsorship or donations to be directed back to performers.
The organizing team acknowledged that the year off gave time to take a breath and find ways to make the human effort required to run Porchfest sustainable — but they also acknowledged that folks around town, including themselves, very much missed Porchfest in its absence.
Yellow Springs’ annual Porchfest transforms the town’s patios and porches into a de facto villagewide venue. Above, Mojo Power drew a large crowd in 2019 along the bike path on President Street as the event wound down in the evening. (Submitted photo by Nick Deys)
“I think all of us were sad when there wasn’t a Porchfest in 2024,” Foor said.
And it was missing Porchfest that led some, including Margi Gay, to get on board; she and her husband, Rob Gay, have hosted bands on the South High Street front stoop at Electroshield in years past.
“And it was so much fun,” she said. “So when I got an email for 2025, I thought, ‘Well, if you guys need help, I can lend a hand.’”
Considering what makes Porchfest special among local events, Seitz said he’s heard folks point to its price tag (free), its walkability and the fact that it’s deeply focused on providing a fun impetus for locals to get out and about.
“Porchfest is one of the things left that’s really by and for the community,” he said, adding: “It’s also a sad time nationally. So just being able to provide something that brings some pleasure and joy and increases community — we want to do that.”
Volunteer Niki Sage agreed: “I’m so happy it’s back — with a flourish.”
Porchfest returns Saturday, Sept. 20; go to http://www.ysporchfest.com for a full list of venues and performers, as well as an interactive map. A print copy of the map was inserted in this week’s issue of the News — the Sept. 12 edition.
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