Porchfest

For four hours on a Saturday in June, five streets in the northwest part of Grants Pass are shut to cars and given over to music. The 2026 edition ran June 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on NW 4th Street, NW Washington, NW Manzanita, NW Lawnridge, and NW Evelyn, and the stages were the front porches of the historic homes along them. The Southern Oregon Guitar Society played classical guitar through the late morning from the porch at 723 NW 4th Street. At 1019 NW Lawnridge, Melodia Rose played reggae in the afternoon. In Lawnridge Park, the Jefferson Pipe Band played bagpipes from 1 to 3. Admission is free, and none of the musicians is paid.

Porches on Lawnridge, Washington, and 4th

The day runs in two sets, 11 to 1 and 1 to 3, and some porches change hands at the midpoint. At 773 NW 4th Street, David and the Barn Bats played Americana in the morning, and The Ant Hill followed after 1 o’clock with bluegrass, folk, and Celtic tunes. The Widdison Family Revue held the porch at 1200 NW Lawnridge for both sets, playing blues and folk.

The 2026 schedule ran to about thirty acts. Rhythms East with Sunstone brought Middle Eastern music and belly dancing to 1012 NW Washington. Mike Stapley billed his set at 1210 NW Washington as “Big Band, Broadway, Bublé, and Bocelli.” Rogue Voices and the S.O. Sound Chorus sang a cappella at 1239 NW Washington. At 317 Manzanita, The Joy of Music put on instrument demonstrations, an Air Force band, and comedy pantomimes. On NW 4th Street, Joe Schmidt performed as a one-man band whose listing ran from folk and country to Hawaiian, and Level One Bard played what the program called “nerd folk.”

According to the organizers, the route is only a few blocks long. Printed schedules and maps are handed out at the festival on the day.

The median, the park, and the raffle

Artists and crafters set up their booths on the median strip of Washington Boulevard. Food vendors, about ten to sixteen of them, sell from designated areas, and most take both cash and cards. Visitors may also bring their own picnics. No alcohol is sold, and none is allowed.

People bring folding chairs and blankets and sit in Lawnridge Park or in front of the porches. The organizers note that the park “has plenty of room for a little running around.” Leashed dogs are welcome, with a caution that the asphalt can get hot, especially later in the day. Restrooms stand near Lawnridge Park and on 4th Street, and the event information booth doubles as the lost and found.

Musicians may put out a tip jar or sell their recordings. Booths along the route belong to youth organizations that receive Porchfest money, and a raffle of donated prizes runs through the afternoon. Sponsor materials count more than 4,000 attendees in 2023.

Rotary and the youth of Josephine County

Rogue Gateway Rotary leads the festival, with volunteers. In the organizers’ words, the organizers, performers, porch hosts, and everyone else take part “as volunteers, giving freely of their time, talents, resources, and hospitality as a gift to the neighborhood and community.” Net proceeds go to youth programs in Josephine County and are distributed by the RG Rotary Foundation. Each year new recipients are chosen. For 2025 they included the Boys and Girls Club of the Rogue Valley, Project Youth Plus, Crossing Bridges Therapeutic Riding Center, the Redwood Play4 All Inclusive Playground, the GP District 7 Early Learning Program, and Rogue Gateway Youth Programs. In June 2026 the festival’s page also named it a supporter of the Table Rock Foundation’s Enchanted Forest Camps, which still had free places for middle and high school students that summer.

The Grants Pass festival began in 2017, and its organizers call it “the first of its kind in Oregon.” They describe it as “a revival of a tradition from the past, when time moved a little more slowly and folks gathered on their porches to visit with neighbors, family, and friends, brought out the guitar or fiddle, and made music together.” Extreme weather can delay, postpone, or cancel the day. In September 2026 the organizers posted that planning had begun for the next edition, with a hold-the-date of June 19, 2027.

Ukuleles in Ithaca

The idea came from Ithaca, New York. According to the Ithaca festival’s own account, Porchfest began in 2007 with some outdoor ukulele playing and a conversation between two neighbors, Gretchen Hildreth and Lesley Greene. They came up with the idea that day. That September they gathered 20 bands to play on the porches of the Fall Creek and Northside neighborhoods. The number grew every year after, reaching 185 bands in 2016. For several years the two founders paid most of the costs out of their own pockets, until Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services began sponsoring the event in 2011.

The Ithaca organizers now count more than 260 other Porchfests they know of in the United States, Canada, and Australia. A Wikipedia list of them names two towns under Oregon: Grants Pass and Milwaukie.