Rain, rain go away, come again some non-PorchRokr day.
There’s a good chance that will be the mantra on Saturday for the fifth Highland Square PorchRokr Festival.
The music and art festival, modeled on and inspired by similar events including the smaller Larchmere Porchfest in Cleveland, has grown steadily in its four years (yes, five festivals in four years), each time using a different section of the eclectic neighborhood.
For 2016, the Highland Square Neighborhood Association is bringing the festival full circle: It returns to the spot of the first PorchRokr festival, the Casterton and Conger region, making for some shorter porch-to-porch walks for festivalgoers.
“It’s a great spot. We had a lot of people and Facebook messages saying ‘please bring it back to Casterton,’ ” said Jim Marron, a member of the performers’ committee.
Also, for the first time, the committee was overloaded with bands wanting to play on someone’s porch or one of the stages. “We had many more [sign up] than we ever, ever had,” Marron said — more than 200 bands.
“In years past, we don’t turn people away, you know? We’re like, if you want to sign up, and you want to play, we’ll put you on a porch. But this year it’s been like, holy cow! Everyone’s turned out from Columbus, Youngstown, Cincinnati, Cleveland. They’re traveling!” he said enthusiastically.
Marron, who teaches classical performance at the University of Akron, was quick to point out that he was just “one spoke in the wheel” and that many other folks checked out the bands. But the guitarist, who is also in the band Layer Cake, “took it upon myself to literally investigate every single band in every possible way I could, all through the internet. Everything I could find on every band.
“It was really a blast, I had a great time. It was cool to find out what everyone is doing,” Marron said, citing bands he was looking forward to seeing, including Time Cat, Kiss Me Deadly and Flower in Flames.
Marron said festivalgoers asked for a bit more arts for the “Music & Arts Festival,” so there will be additional vendors, some collaborative live art and poetry, including a poem painted on the street that will only be visible when it rains, and The Electric Pressure Cooker Cabaret, an open mic event featuring a wide variety of performers of all skill levels.
Marron is also the mastermind behind the Guitar Orchestra that opens the festival each year. The orchestra will play at 10:15 a.m. on the Jilly’s Music Room Main Stage.
The all-volunteer orchestra has become part of the PorchRokr tradition and features guitarists of all skill levels from beginners to advanced. This year’s opening set will feature songs by late, lamented pop music icons Prince and David Bowie, as well as the Star-Spangled Banner.
During a recent rehearsal for the Guitar Orchestra, players Kelly Davis and her son Wesley, both of Copley, said they made their first trip to PorchRokr in 2015 as audience members.
“I was really impressed. What a good vibe it is, everybody’s just walking around relaxed having a good time. It didn’t matter that it was hot. It was huge. I couldn’t believe how many blocks were involved, how many bands,” Davis said.
So for 2016, though they missed the opening program last year, the mom and son team decided to pick up guitars and get involved.
“I like guitar and it seemed like a fun thing” said Wesley, 11. He has been taking guitar lessons for two years and has played a Beatlefest with the band Funny Pages.
Likewise, mama Davis, who performed in operas as a student at University of Akron, has always liked the guitar and the people who play it.
“I love music and studied voice in college, but I always hung out with the guitar people because they were more my style,” she said chuckling.
While the Davises are first-timers, plenty of other bands have graced the porches and stages of past PorchRokrs.
Jeri Sapronetti, singer/songwriter/guitarist for Akron’s Time Cat, has played three times, twice on porches and once on one of the stages. They’re scheduled at 6 p.m. at 75 Edgerton, and she said the hosts are as excited as the bands.
“They had a smorgasbord of food and drinks waiting for us,” she said via Facebook message.
“Clearly you’d have to be friendly and down-to-earth to let scumbag rockers into your homes. I’ve had great experiences as well as gained new friends and fans through PorchRokr,” Sapronetti said.
Singer/guitarist Jeff Klemm is another PorchRokr veteran who will be performing on the main stage at 3 p.m. with his band, The Letters.
“PorchRokr is a true grassroots effort, no pun intended. You show up to someone’s house, whom you may have never met, ask them where to find the power outlets and set up and play on their porch,” Klemm said via Facebook message. “There could be two or 200 people watching you. It’s about as community as it gets.”
Klemm, who has lived in Highland Square for a decade and has toured nationally, including with D.C. prog-metal band Wings Denied, enjoys the unique nature of the festival and the neighborhood.
“Actually meeting all the colorful people you see around, while also experiencing the eclecticism that is the Akron music scene, is something you can’t get at any other festival. An event that promotes the community’s thriving music scene and its eclectic neighborhood is something that no other festival has.”
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Read his blog, Sound Check Online, at www.ohio.com/blogs/sound-check, like him on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1lNgxml and/or follow him on Twitter @malcolmabramABJ.