Schenectady Porchfest Brings Free Live Music to GE Realty Plot for Third Year

Schenectady Porchfest returns for its third consecutive year, bringing a night of free live music on large porches in the city’s GE Realty Plot neighborhood. 

This year’s event, set for Saturday, Sept. 20, is the biggest yet, featuring seven sites with performances ranging from classical and salsa to roots and jazz. For the first time, a choir and string ensemble will perform works by Bach inside a church setting. 

Concerts run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with emerging talent bookending sets by veteran acts.

Honoring the Electric City’s deep jazz roots, several of the 14 scheduled concerts will highlight the genre, including one featuring regional vocalists: Kaitlyn Fay Koch, Jeanine Ouderkirk and Tyler Thomas. Other performers’ genres range from punk and classic rock to German Oktoberfest and movie and musical scores, offering a variety of music perfect for dancing. The lineup also includes the CHIME fiddlers, a group of school students, the well-traveled Alex Torres Latin Orchestra and bluegrass band Unken Brew.

Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church will host the festival’s first indoor show of the series, a concert called “Uplifting Voices, Strings, and Organ from the Sanctuary.” 

Porchfest will be held rain or shine. Street parking is available and food truck vendors will be on-site. 

For more details, visit schenectadyporchfest.org.

Full Porchfest Schedule

• 11:00-11:45 a.m. — Calvary Choir & Musicians — Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1230 Rugby Rd)
• 11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. — Backyard Brass — 1050 Avon Rd.
• 12:00-12:45 p.m. — Alex Torres Orchestra — 1204 Rugby Rd.
• 12:00-12:45 p.m. — Brass Abbey — 7 Douglas Rd.
• 1:00-1:45 p.m. — Vocal Jazz Vanguard — 1226 Wendell Ave
• 1:00-1:45 p.m. — Chirignan-Hardage Duo — 1183 Stratford Rd.
• 2:00-2:15 p.m. — CHIME Fiddlers — 1183 Stratford Rd.
• 2:00-2:45 p.m. — Unken Brew — 1204 Rugby Rd.
• 2:00-2:45 p.m. — Yolanda Bush Cool Water Collective — 1095 Ardsley Rd.
• 3:00-3:45 p.m. — Kevin Carey Group — 1226 Wendell Ave
• 3:00-3:45 p.m. — The Evidence — 1183 Stratford Rd.
• 4:00-4:45 p.m. — Signature Brass — 1095 Ardsley Rd.
• 4:00-4:45 p.m. — Bossamba — 7 Douglas Rd.
• 5:00-6:00 p.m. — Nice Hockey — 1095 Ardsley Rd.