Transcript edited for length and clarity.
Clay Wallace, WUKY
Good morning. You're listening to 91.3 WUKY NPR Lexington. I'm Clay Wallace. Today I'm sitting out back on the porch of Kenwick Table, a restaurant in the Kenwick neighborhood. With me are Hannah Allen and Martha Aloha, organizers of the upcoming Kenwick Porch Fest, as well as Em Spencer, a musician who will be performing there. Good morning, and thank you for being here. So — what is Kenwick Porch Fest?
Hannah Allen, Kenwick Porch Fest
Kenwick Porch Fest is a local neighborhood music festival. We invite musicians from around Lexington as well as the region to play music on front porches around our beautiful historic neighborhood. We pair musicians up with front porches - it's a pretty cool process - and then you, the visitor, can come build your own lineup and enjoy music throughout the neighborhood.
Clay
What kind of music can people expect to hear?
Martha Aloha, Kenwick Porch Fest
Oh my goodness, this year we're going to hear a lot of different things, from a tuba-ukulele combo called The Neverly Brothers to Narcan Barbie, who's punk. We were really focused on spreading genres and becoming more diverse in our offerings, and I think we accomplished that. Everything from classical to Americana to folk to singer-songwriter to... What am i missing, Hannah?
Hannah
Emo! There's emo acoustic, which is always a fun combo. There's a little bit of everything for everyone, and especially this year. My favorite returning performer is Dogmutt - a young guy named Jesse who plays acoustic emo. He's great. We also have a band called Sad Black Lab. Some really unique acts that I'm excited for people to hear.
Clay
For people who are offering up their porches - is it just "Pair me up with anybody," or do they tell you their preferences?
Hannah
It depends. When we say this is a build-your-own festival, we mean it. There are no rules here, we make them up as we go. Some porch hosts reach out with specific genres. Some say, "We want the weirdest musicians you have." And boy, do we have some of those for them. Some folks even play on their own porches, which is really fun. There are a lot of different ways to be a porch host.
Clay
What's it like to wander through a neighborhood where there's music coming from everywhere?
Hannah
There really is music around every corner. It's fun to just walk the neighborhood with no plan - your ears pick up music and you follow it. One year we had a drum circle, and it's kind of wild to just be walking and suddenly hear drums. I'm really excited for that energy with some of our louder, more energetic bands this year. There's something crazy about walking your dog down the street and then hearing a punk band in someone's garage.
Martha
For a lot of people, I think it's an introduction to something new. The feeling we've kept coming back to all year is whimsy - organic, unplanned. You walk out your door with a plan, or maybe you don't, and your plan goes completely sideways because you heard someone and you're just compelled to sit down. That's how I've experienced it. I thought I was going to do one thing and I ended up getting pulled into somebody's set going, "Oh my God, I'd never heard of them before. Now I'm a fan." People walk away as fans of musicians they'd never heard of, and that just makes my heart happy.
Clay
How big is this? How many porches, how many streets?
Hannah
We've doubled this year, which is really exciting. We had a goal of 50 performers, exceeded that quickly, and said — all right, let's get more porches. We right now have 75 performers lined up to play, from 2 to 9. We added two hours to the day this year just to give it a little more room.
Martha
And we have about 34 venues all around the neighborhood. It spreads from Walton on one end to Sherman on the other, from Main Street all the way to the third block of Bassett, just shy of National Avenue. So we're covering a lot of ground.
Clay
How many years has this gone on?
Hannah
This will be our fourth year, which is kind of wild. We were actually started by one of our neighbors, Tomi.
Kenwick Porch Fest began as a celebration of National Play Music on Your Front Porch Day. I asked Tomi if I could help out the next year and kind of ended up taking it on myself. Then Martha came on last year, and we've really developed a big team. We've really utilized our volunteers as we continue to grow in a very organic, community-based way.
Martha
At the end of last year, we noticed the crowd was getting bigger, more people were coming, the musicians were enjoying it. There have been numerous musicians for whom this was their very first time playing in front of people. I'm like, how amazing is that? Can we have more of that?
Clay
Are there any other big changes between last year and this year?
Hannah
We are very excited to announce that we have port-a-potties this year. We have food trucks. We have Music Lab, a children's program through Lexington Philharmonic, coming and hanging out at the Kenwick Community Center. We're also starting with a bike parade that Wildlings and ArtPlay are going to help us with - a kids' bike parade to kick off the event. We're really trying to bring in more than just music. We also have karaoke.
Martha
Yeah, at the community center! If somebody wants to do their own music, they can go do that too. We really are DIY. A lot of the big changes are about making sure we have the amenities to match the growth. People are starting to come from other neighborhoods into ours to enjoy it, and we want to be ready for that.
Clay
Do either of you have a favorite moment from past Porch Fests?
Hannah
We joke that it's going to rain. It rains every year, at least a little. This is a rain-or-shine event. But I love it when it rains. You really see the humanity of the event. You see folks continuing to play, people dancing in the rain. It really doesn't bother anyone. That's such a special, magical moment.
Martha
For me, one of my favorite things from last year... My husband and I always have a porch full of people, all their families and friends rolling through our house. At some point we left because I wanted to see someone play, and we put a friend in charge. We came home and there were just kids running everywhere I didn't know. And it didn't even matter. There's something really special that happens on that day where everybody's doors become more open.
Hannah
A neighborhood is a community, but I think Porch Fest is one of those days where you can see your community in action.
Clay
Hannah and Martha brought with them today Em Spencer, a musician performing at Kenwick Porch Fest. M, have you had a chance to scope out your porch yet?
I have not. I just got connected with the other musician I'm going to be playing with - his name's Nate. But I do want to swing by and check it out! I've heard it's a good one, so I'm excited.
Clay
What are you going to be bringing to Porch Fest?
Em
Honestly, I just try to do my own spin on music that I either grew up listening to or have discovered over the past few years - a lot of different genres, but I try to make it a little more folksy. There's an artist on TikTok who's coined the term "y'allternative," and I feel like that's kind of where I reside. I'll probably be doing some original stuff too.
Clay
Where can people go to find out more about Porch Fest?
Hannah
We have a wonderful website: kenwickporchfest.com. At the top, it says "2026 Lineup" - you can scroll through all of our performers and add them to your own personal lineup. You can also see a map of all our amenities: where the port-a-potties will be, where the food trucks will be. You can also donate.
Something we started this year is what we're calling the tip jar. Rather than just having a physical tip jar on someone's porch, we wanted to create a communal profit-sharing tip jar. It's to keep our event accessible and equitable to our performers. We want to show them that even though this is a community event where they're playing for free, we value their time and their talent.
Clay
Is there anything else people should know about Porch Fest?
Hannah
The best way to Porch Fest is on two wheels - bring a bicycle. The other best way is to find a friend who lives in the neighborhood and use their house as your home base. Bring chairs to set up in front of someone's porch, bring a wagon with a cooler and snacks. We'll have food trucks, but it's always nice to come prepared. And be prepared for weather - it is late August in Kentucky. We are a rain-or-shine event. No matter what the weather is, we will be playing music.
Clay
Thank you so much for chatting with me today.
This has been a conversation with Hannah Allen, Martha Aloha, and Em Spencer. Kenwick Porch Fest is a free community music festival spread out across dozens of porches in the Kenwick neighborhood, from 2 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, August 22nd. At Kenwick Table, I'm Clay Wallace. You're listening to 91.3 WUKY, NPR Lexington.