NORTHAMPTON — The annual Back Porch Festival is returning to downtown Northampton for its 11th year from Friday, March 7 to Sunday, March 9 and is set for another rocking weekend that brings more than 60 bands to over 10 of the city’s diverse downtown venues.
Presenting the festival is a partnership between Signature Sounds and the Parlor Room Collective. The Back Porch Festival was founded in 2014 as a one-day event at the Academy of Music Theater in Northampton. It has since grown to a multi-venue event featuring the best in American roots music. Each year the festival includes a live broadcast of the Back Porch radio show form the Parlor Room before a live audience.
Back Porch Radio host Jim Olsen has been on the airwaves of WRSI since 1984, serving as the station’s program and music director from 1985-1996. When the station moved to Northampton in 1996 and became 93.9 The River, the Back Porch came with it.
The program’s eclectic mix of new and classic country, bluegrass, folk, blues and all forms of American roots music celebrates 30 years next year. Olsen told Reminder Publishing the event was born when he and other organizers looked to produce a concert for the community. When the booked act ended up canceling last minute, organizers improvised and turned the single show into a split performances between three different artists.
“That was sort of the beginning,” said Olsen. “We sort of grew it slowly over the next few years before the pandemic. It was basically three shows at the Academy over a weekend and some side shows in a couple of clubs around town. But it didn’t grow into what it is now until after the pandemic, when we really took it and grew it into a real music festival with tent venues.”
Olsen said the expansion out of COVID-19 made a lot of sense in terms of getting the community back out and together during a citywide event and it also was the logical evolution of the festival.
“When we were doing it just as separately ticketed concerts, people would choose one or two to go to and it didn’t really feel like a festival, and we really were trying to create the idea of doing it as a proper festival and having all these venues helping really expand it. It’s just so fun and it comes in March at a time when everything’s dead, people are just sick of being inside and want to get out and it makes for a really great vibe. It’s a lot of fun to be able to bob around town, see different things, run into your friends, it just really works well.”
The only multi-day festival to take place this winter in New England, the Back Porch Festival will kick off with an all-star tribute to Neil Young on March 7 at the Academy of Music. Past songwriter nights have paid tribute to legends like Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Dolly Parton and John Prine, and guest artists will be announced soon.
Headlining the second day of the weekend is the Back Porch Bluegrass Spectacular with The Travelin’ McCourys, an acclaimed quintet taking traditional bluegrass and carving innovative pathways into 21st century music, The Sam Grisman Project paying tribute to the musical legacy of Sam’s father David Grisman and Jerry Garcia, and East Grass Nash. The big closing act of the weekend will be Lucinda Williams at the Academy of Music Sunday night.
When it came to booking artists, Olsen explained he looks for a good mixture of national touring acts and local acts.
“It’s a mix of about 60% national touring artists and then 40% local and regional artists so it’s a great thing for us,” Olsen said.
Olsen added the event brings much additional business to downtown whether its through shops or restaurants during Back Porch as around 4,000 tickets are sold for the event. He added at its core, the event is a celebration of Northampton’s music and arts culture and showcases acts nationally and locally.
“Northampton has always been a terrific music town. I moved here originally in 1984 and there’s always been all these venues and all this music going on,” said Olsen. “It’s a really big part of the town’s identity and it really speaks a lot for this wonderful place we live in, that a town this size can support so much music, so we really wanted to celebrate that and I think a festival, particularly one that’s kind of at a dead time of year, is just great and is a feather in the cap for the town. It’s just a really unique, unusual event that spotlights Northampton in a great way.”
For more information on this year’s Back Porch Festival, its schedule, full list of performers and to purchase tickets or ramble passes, visit backporchfest.com.
