From blues to bluegrass: Music fills Joliet’s Cathedral District during free Porch & Park Fest

The Joliet Cathedral District will host its fourth annual Porch & Park Music Fest on Saturday, Aug. 16, celebrating the historic neighborhood and showcasing cross-genre musical performances.

Throughout the afternoon, guests will have the opportunity to take a musical walking tour through the historic district and enjoy music from 10 temporary stages set up on residents’ porches along Western, Taylor, Buell and Campbell streets.

Event organizer Tim Placher said the idea for the festival came about after the COVID-19 pandemic, when a visiting musician from Nashville asked him to show her around the neighborhood.

“She saw the old houses and said ‘You should do a porch festival,’” Placher said. “I’d never heard of that before. But when she explained it, I talked to the Cathedral Area Preservation Association. We had to approach all the residents about it and explain what we were envisioning. All we ask for is the use of their porch, for people to be able to sit on their lawn and electrical access. I’m very indebted to the people who said yes that first year.”

Since the first year, Placher said, no one has said no to taking part in the event once they saw what was involved.

This year’s program will feature 10 music porches, a lemonade stand porch, a kids activities porch, and houses hosting arts and crafts booths.

‘All kinds of music’

Musical performances will run throughout the Cathedral District from 1:30 to 5 p.m., although Placher said people likely will start arriving by 1 p.m. to get seats.

After the porch shows, an additional concert will be held in Preservation Park, 710 Taylor St., from 5:30 to 9 p.m. All attendees of the porch festival are encouraged to migrate to the park for the final acts of the night.

Admission to the festival is free, and food will be available to buy from Magpie’s Joy of Eating and MoJoe’s Cajun.

“About half of our funding comes from private patrons, many of whom grew up in the Cathedral District,” Placher said.

The remainder of the financial support comes from local businesses and organizations.

“The University of St. Francis helps us with printing promotional materials, and the Cathedral Area Preservation Association helps supply us with volunteers so we can compensate our musicians fairly and keep the event free for everyone,” Placher said.

Organizers have worked to expand the variety of musical genres at the festival this year, with participating bands playing New Orleans brass, swing, mariachi, classical, Irish, classic rock, blues, bluegrass and original songs.

“We’ve got a bigger variety this year,” Placher said. “We have some musicians coming from Nashville and Michigan, and we added the Joliet Symphony Orchestra, who will have small groups playing on one porch.

“As a musician, I know my music tastes run a wide variety. So, as this has grown, I’ve tried to expand it to bring people in with different tastes. They can come in for one thing and give other things a try this way.”

Getting there and parking

Attendees will be able to park on the street throughout the Cathedral District and walk from porch to porch. Participating houses will be marked with smiley-face flags and will have maps available to find other stages.

There is no set or recommended route between the participating porches, and guests are encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets for seating.

“We want this to be a core neighborhood event, where people can walk around and talk to each other and hear all kinds of music,” Placher said. “Wherever you are, there’ll be music in the vicinity.”

Placher said the event has grown each year since it started and, if the weather is good, he expects a crowd of about 1,500 people throughout the day.

The event will continue in the case of light rain, as all the musicians and their equipment will be covered by the porches.

“We had some rain come through for the first hour last year, but that didn’t really stop people from sticking around,” Placher said. “We’ve never had a severe weather problem, so if it rains, we’ll just keep plugging our way through and deal with whatever comes.”

A full list of locations and musician lineups is available on the Porch & Park Fest website.