Case study · Community

Norcross Porchfest

A free, walkable music festival built from nothing in a historic neighborhood. Saturday, May 2, 2026, 12PM to 6PM, across the residential streets around Thrasher Park.

1,500

people, first year

35

acts, juried from nearly 50

12

porch stages

$0

ticket price

The idea

Porchfest started with Kristen. She had spent four years writing a free weekly newsletter for Historic Norcross, and the porch-stage format, which runs in neighborhoods all over the country, fit the way people already move around here. You can walk two blocks and run into someone you know every few houses.

She and Jonathan organized it together. The neighborhood became the venue: residents volunteered their porches and front yards, and visitors walked between them, stopping wherever the music pulled them.

What it took

A free festival on residential streets is mostly logistics and permission. The parts that had to be built:

An open call that drew nearly 50 applications, juried down to the lineup by a panel of Norcross residents
Twelve homeowners recruited to hand over their porches for an afternoon
Street closures approved by the City of Norcross, and a noise ordinance waiver approved by City Council
A plan worked out with Norcross PD so residents inside the closure zone could still get home, with no passes and no paperwork
Wayfinding signage, three free overflow parking lots, seven food trucks, and two local breweries
A sponsor program, a volunteer program, a homeowner information campaign, and a porch decorating contest run with students from Brookhaven Innovation Academy

The Historic Norcross Woman’s Club hosted storytellers and spoken word poets, so the afternoon was not only music.