Carmel PorchFest will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a bang.
The Carmel High School Drumline will kick off the Sept.17 event at 11:45 a.m., marching down 1st Avenue NW to 6th Street NW in downtown Carmel. The free festival will feature 58 bands performing on 21 porches from noon to 6 p.m. Each set is 45 minutes. The area is only open to foot traffic during the event.
Two bands, The Failers and Circuit Thursday, will be honored with special awards for their 10th appearance at the event. Carmel PorchFest Executive Director Sondra Schwieterman said the bands will receive a Carmel PorchFest cooler stocked with beer.
The Failers will perform at 12:45 p.m. on Porch 13, and Circuit Thursday will play at 4:30 p.m. on Porch 15.
Food vendors include Arepas, Ice Cream Donuts and Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria. Bier Brewery will have three locations. Peace Water Winery, Sugar Creek Winery and Pure Green Juice will also be on-site.
All Things Carmel will sell 10-year PorchFest T-shirts. Carmel PorchFest also will have a booth.
“We’re going to host a band hospitality tent, so the bands can network and meet one another,” Schwieterman said.
Feinstein’s will have VIP lounge tent for sponsors and donors.
Schwieterman said donations go toward the Carmel PorchFest grants to students ages 6-18 with musical aspirations. The grant application and other event information can be found at carmelporchfest.org.
The first PorchFest was started in Ithaca, N.Y. in 2007. Since then, several other cities in the U.S. and Canada started the music festival. Carmel became the first city in Indiana in 2014.
