Buffalo Porchfest Ride

Buffalo Porchfest is an annual event every spring in Buffalo's Elmwood Village where homeowners offer their porches for bands to play on. It is a completely free event with homeowners and bands volunteering their time. The performers can range from one person playing a guitar to DJs to full bands. Although to be honest, you can see a guy playing guitar on his porch just about any Saturday in the Elmwood Village. It's Buffalo's trendiest neighborhood just south of Buffalo State College.

Like a lot of popular events in this city, we didn't originate it, but we embrace anything that gives people an excuse to drink outside and have fun. If it's free, all the better. The great thing is that pretty much everything is free. Homeowners and bands will often offer food and drinks for free or at a minimal at-cost charge. People are also free to bring their own beer and food. Generally, the police will not bother anybody drinking outside as long as people do not bother anyone else.

The original Porchfest began in Ithaca, NY in 2007. We have had ours since 2013.

We decided to try to get a group ride together. It was just me and my friend Alex at first but we were later joined by her mother, and a friend who brought his dog. We met up at this statue of people holding up birds.

While waiting for the last person to arrive we noticed a small crowd of about 5 people gathering nearby to watch a guy play guitar on his porch.

We got a message saying another group of cyclists were heading to see Able Footing at a house on Ripley St. Able Footing play traditional folk and Americana songs. They have a banjo player, a trumpet player, a percussionist and two women who sing. They're fun and entertaining.

After this our group of cyclists started growing, which made it more difficult to make it to each band on time. We missed a brass band but made it in time to see our friends in the Bear. Yes that is a child's drumset he is playing.

The Bear plays very loosely put together songs, which include a Bruce Springsteen cover and original songs about such topics as dinosaurs and doing a super bowl dance, which apparently looks like this:

After this we stopped to see a friend at her graduation dinner but the bands were mostly over at this point. Before heading home, I had to make a stop in Lasalle Park to pick something up for tomorrow morning. I've been looking forward to this again for awhile. This is the 6th annual event and it's going to be an awesome ride this year, bigger than ever. I will post about it tomorrow.

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