Artbeat vs Porchfest vs Figment
Somerville and Cambridge square off on Saturday, 19 July 2025.
Artbeat in Davis Square (and Figment in Assembly Square) versus Porchfest in Cambridgeport.
Two (or three) community events enter, one survives this steel cage match.
Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix
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Hump Nights
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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️ Hump Nights 〰️
Hump Nights
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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix
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Hump Nights 〰️ Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️
It was an embarrassment of riches on the local community arts calendar with competing events on either ends of Camberville. Hump Day News made it to Artbeat in Somerville, then Porchfest (the first day of a two-day event in Cambridge), but we should at least give mention to one other date we missed. Figment 2025, a free, inclusive, participatory art event held the same day in Assembly Square was also clamoring for crowds.
Gompson at Artbeat
If you lived somewhere in Camberville, you probably did not have to walk too far from your front step to find something happening on Saturday.
The digital signboard outside Aetna Lighting Service Inc. in Cambridgeport advertised a steamy 90 degrees. Hot times on the streets. But most of the artists at the inaugural Cambridge Porchfest were wise to the weather, setting up their stages in shaded nooks around the neighborhood on Saturday.
DJs, country strummers, folkies, honkers and more entertained family-friendly crowds at homeowner-friendly volumes. Indie folkers Scrivener performed on a porch (ahem, “deck” – although the “Deckfest” branding initiative kind of withered on the vine …) and played to a backyard full of Cantabrigians on Franklin Street.
Glad Valley took over a side lot on Auburn Street, full of children blowing bubbles instead of the usual crush of parked cars. The indie rock trio belted out bluesy, rootsy tunes with jammy solos that glided atop the summer breeze.
Glad Valley at Cambridge Porchfest
Singer-songwriter Tony Flackett pulled good numbers on Erie Street. He wowed the crowd with an anti-Trump protest song. Is he shooting fish in a barrel, playing to the political persuasions of a predominantly liberal audience? Sure, not a problem. There are some fish in some barrels that need some shooting. Like they say in 1980s action flicks: “Lock and load!”
“Porchfest” continued on Sunday with a schedule of music events hosted by Central Square businesses. Let’s keep Day Two in scare quotes, because porches need not apply. The Massavenaires folked at Phoenix Landing. Alreckque rocked at Middle East. Chicken Slacks funked at Cantab Lounge. Residents and out-of-towners enjoyed a day of music dropping in and out of the storefronts nestled along Massachusetts Avenue.
Day Two was not a Porchfest – and it doesn’t need to be. There’s a different model in play here that lands somewhere between your classic Boston Calling-type fest and a true grassroots-driven, community-type Porchfest.
I’ve reported elsewhere on the decentralized music festival New Colossus, a multiday spectacle that stages shows under the same banner in the myriad clubs dotting the Lower East Side in New York City. With its dense cluster of venues and storefronts, Central Square has the infrastructure to pull off something similar.
What do you say, Cambridge Arts? Let’s make one good thing into two better things. Run back Cambridge Porchfest as a neighborhood group-driven event, and spin off a separate commerce-driven event that platforms music in the more professional surroundings of our local stages and storefronts.
To paraphrase the esteemed Jason Mraz, “I want us to have it all.”
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Live at the Bomber. Where’s the Bomber?