Tower Porchfest celebrated Fresno’s music community by allowing artists of all backgrounds to perform on participant porches throughout the Tower District on April 25.
From restaurants and food trucks to kids selling lemonade, Porchfest offered a wide range of food and drinks for the people listening to music to munch on while mashing and dancing.
The streets of Tower District were full of people of all ages listening to local music, selling art, cycling around and performing.
Gabriela Cayetano, an artist vendor, said that she loves Porchfest because of the people.
“Its just the culture you know? Getting us all together on one day, just everything so peaceful, everyone is so friendly” Cayetano said. “I love seeing families and their pets.”
One performer, Jose Morales, performed with individual musicians who came together to perform for Porchfest. He stated how the people who he performed with are friends, and that Jose himself is at the beginning of a solo project.
Morales and his friends performed for the first time, with the performers working together to sing Mexican music that can be found at @chemoralesoficial on Instagram.
Zugey Felix, a first-time Porchfest attendee, said that she doesn’t listen to music a lot but wanted to experience all the different genres of music that Porchfest had to offer. Felix also said that she was most interested in seeing some Jazz musicians.
Jessica Rodriguez, a first-time attendee, said she initially felt awkward, but quickly fell in love with the people and lively community. Rodriguez said she was looking forward to hearing electronic and darkwave music later in the day.
Asa Waggoner, a member of the band “For The Record,” describes the group’s sound as “Grizzly City Ska.” Waggoner has lived in Fresno for the last five years and said he has grown to love the city.
“It’s the community, honestly, I was thinking about it when we were playing.” Waggoner said. How many people hear us and stick around even if they didn’t come to see us.”
Waggoner said people of all walks of life come together at Porchfest, from drag queens to a girl with a bubble wand who joined the pit, to a man with an afro and Beetlejuice pants.
“There is this really nice sense of community, it’s great because it’s all local talent. There’s no one here touring, they’re all here from Fresno. They are all local bands,” Waggoner said. “You might find your next favorite band.”
