This Saturday, May 2nd, the 2nd Annual St. Elmo Porchfest is back and will be filling the streets of St. Elmo with local music and community-inspired fun.
St. Elmo Porchfest began in 2025, and this year’s festival will feature over 20 bands and artists performing all across the neighborhood. The event is completely free and is organized by St. Elmo Stroll, a local volunteer group.
In addition to the incredible live music sifting through the multiple porches across St. Elmo, there will also be food trucks from California Smothered Burrito and Smash Boyz Chatt, with tasty treats from Pop Pop Kettle Corn and Local Paletas Popsicles. Expect face painting, an amazing children’s show by Jenn Daniels Music, yoga by Greenway Chatt, and even a cornhole tournament.
A few local artists and bands that will be performing include The Blake Worthington String Band, Call Me Spinster, Swayyvo, Telemonster, Joel Forlines Band, and Amber Fults, to name just a few of the spectacular musicians that will be hanging out and jamming on front porches.
The official afterparty will be hosted at The Woodshop Listening Room at 9 p.m. and feature a performance by Chattanooga-based band The Cle Elum. The festival is a great way to connect the community with local musicians; however, the idea for the St. Elmo Porchfest was initially inspired by the nationwide Porchfest movement that began in Ithaca, New York, in 2007 and has spread to over 100 cities since then.
The group that organizes the event, St. Elmo Stroll, is a dedicated group of neighbors that started a nonprofit at the end of COVID with the intention of bringing the community together in public spaces in the St. Elmo neighborhood. They also put on the St. Elmo Luminaria Festival as well.
In speaking with the executive director of the non-profit volunteer group, Kim Frankel Marsh, she discussed the impact that the St. Elmo Porchfest has had on the surrounding community and the people of St. Elmo.
“In the last five years, we’ve raised over $15,000 that has gone directly back to area nonprofits like the Humane Society and the food bank. We’ve also partnered with local businesses, who have graciously supported our work and sponsorships, by including them in the events as much as possible. I think most importantly, early on, we made a commitment to pay the creatives that were involved in our festivals, whether that was an artist, acrobats, dancers, or musicians. I think we often undervalue the impact that arts and music have on the development of community, and we really wanted to honor that.
We’ve also worked in a hands-on way with the Chattanooga Jazz Festival, Outdoor Chattanooga, and the neighborhood association here to try to bring some of our work around authentic engagement into other spheres. In those spaces, we are thinking about ways to build spaces. More folks can truly interact and not just share the same space at a festival.”
Kim went on to discuss the importance of the support the local community has shown for the festival, mentioning that participation from neighbors and community members has been incredible and that even local businesses have been integrated into the process.
“There has been so much support for this event. There’s a feeling of distributed ownership, which has always been one of our goals, to keep it feeling really grassroots, where folks feel empowered to make the day their own. There’s a group of neighbors that have started a cornhole tournament and a local yoga group that has offered classes to start the day; there are other neighbors that have started their own garden tours and children’s activities as part of this.
It’s also been fun to integrate local businesses into this process. Some of the neighborhood businesses have shows on their own porches, and we invited local food trucks to be a part of the day. In general, we’ve tried to center the festival as much around St. Elmo and its residents as possible.”
What makes St. Elmo Porchfest so incredibly special and meaningful for Chattanooga and specifically the St. Elmo residents is that people can walk door-to-door, shaking hands, making new friends, and getting to know their neighbors, all over the shared bond of music.
Maybe it’s a specific genre you bond over or a local band you love. It could also be a tasty treat or a collective win in the cornhole tournament. There is no shortage of ways to connect with your fellow neighbors. It’s also huge, as it boosts the local economy and shines a spotlight on local creatives and merchants.
When asked about the future of St. Elmo Porchfest in the next few years, Kim suggested that they are constantly looking for ways to explore new ways to connect with surrounding neighbors while also keeping the event grounded in being a neighborhood-oriented festival.
“This is a tough one that we talk about a lot: How do we retain the sense that this is a neighborhood event and also keep it financially viable for us and lucrative for musicians and artists? We’ve been grateful to have some community support and sponsors that allow this to happen, but it will continue to be a challenge over time.
We’re looking at other ways to continue to develop community engagement within our neighborhood. We’ve been exploring things like play streets in St. Elmo but are also looking at ways that we can connect with some of our surrounding neighborhoods in a more intentional way.”
2nd Annual St. Elmo Porchfest
- Saturday, May 2. 10 a.m.
- Free.
- 5500 St Elmo Ave, Chattanooga
- stelmostroll.com