Historic Athens Porchfest Returns for Its Eighth Year

Denise Sunta spends weeks matching hundreds of bands to hundreds of front porches, making sure no two sets at the same time land next door to each other and that no musician playing in multiple bands gets double-booked across neighborhoods for Historic Athens Porchfest.

This year, a University of Georgia geography professor’s software helped with some of that work. 

“My degree was in geography, so I got to work with one of my professors, Dr. Jerry Shannon, who helped me put together a program this year,” said Sunta, Historic Athens’ vice president of operations, who is organizing Porchfest for the third year. 

The complex planning by Sunta and the nonprofit, which only has eight staff members, is part of what keeps Historic Athens Porchfest running each October. The free, single-day music festival returns Sunday, Oct. 18, from 1 to 8 p.m., spreading performances across porches, lawns and businesses in seven historic Athens neighborhoods. 

“Last year we had 263 bands,” Sunta said in mid-September. “This year, …we have 238 and probably counting.”

Historic Athens Executive Director Tommy Valentine launched the event in 2019 with about 70 bands in four neighborhoods. Porchfest has become what organizers call the largest single-day free music festival in the community. 

That growth shows up in the nonprofit’s finances. Historic Athens’ expenses rose from about $815,000 to more than $1.2 million between fiscal years 2024 and 2025, according to the organization’s federal tax filings, driven largely by new hires, including director of communications Sarah Frazer and staff coordinator Taneisha Brooks. 

One of the things that we really pride ourselves on… is that we pay our people very well,” Sunta said. 

The other major cost was the launch of the Equitable Home Preservation Initiative, an American Rescue Plan Act-funded program that rehabilitates low-income homeowners’ homes in Porchfest’s historic neighborhoods.

Individual porch sponsorships run $150 each, which lets small businesses buy into the event alongside longtime presenting sponsor Cafe Racer. Historic Athens counts more than 70 businesses in its broader partner program. 

“It’s a little bit more of an accessible way for businesses to be more involved with the event,” Sunta said. “Having more porches means that we get to have more sponsors.”

This year’s new additions include a Kids Zone at Good Shepherd Athens, added after the church reached out to Historic Athens about hosting a family-friendly area. A food truck park at Athentic Brewing Co., which started last year to serve crowds on a Sunday when many restaurants are closed, returns alongside the Indie South Vendors Market at Normaltown Brewing Co. 

The day traditionally ends with the Mayor’s Show at 7 p.m. in Pulaski Heights, featuring Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz and Winterville Mayor Dodd Ferrelle. Girtz, who is term-limited, will hand the office to Mayor-elect Dexter Fisher in January 2027. Organizers say they’ve invited Fisher to join this year’s performance. 

Historic Athens has partnered with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department for crowd safety, and organizers say the event has never been rained out, even with some close calls. 

“You see how the city of Athens embraces the event each year,” Frazer said, “and how much they love it.”

Fuller Houk is a journalism major in Reporting II in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.