Paonia holds its first Porchfest on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 2 to 9:30 p.m. It's free. The day starts at Lore Cacao, 110 Third St., where organizers will hand out maps, and from there, according to the event listing, it roams "through backyards and alleyways." Organizer Summer Orr says the festival moves to the Blue Sage Center for the Arts as it gets dark.
Orr and a friend, Dallas, wanted to bring more musicians into the North Fork Valley, including performers outside the music the valley usually hears, with no big money behind it. "It's all just artists putting on this thing for other artists and musicians," Orr said.
Hosts offered up their backyards and porches. One, Orr said, is "kind of like a witchy cave with all these trees," and it's where Lunar Mansions plays. The listing gives that act's genre as "Witches singing." Other acts include the post-punk band Pink Lady Monster, coming from Denver, and King Orchard, from Boulder, Orr said.
Rai Omri and Jon Hickam play early, around 2:45 p.m., in a backyard on Onarga Avenue. Live in KVNF's studio with Andrea Castillo, they played Gillian Welch's "Dark Turn of Mind" and "In the Pines," a song Hickam said they took from the Louvin Brothers. Hickam met Omri at an album release party for her partner, and the two bonded over old-time music and "country harmony stuff."
Porchfest is volunteer-led, and many of the musicians are traveling in. Orr asked people to "show up and give back to the musicians" and to "pay into the tip jar." The full lineup is on Instagram at @porchfestpaonia.
