Sunny Brae community comes together in a harmonious celebration of local music

by Mia Costales

The cozy little neighborhood of Sunny Brae is home to an eclectic group of residents. From families with young children to elderly folks who have lived in the area for decades to twenty-something-year-old college kids, Sunny Brae is a quiet and quaint sanctuary to many. But for one day out of the year, the community that many call home transforms into a lively music festival known as Porch Fest, complete with dozens of acts ranging from twangy folk numbers to electrifying punk.   

This past weekend marked the second-ever Porch Fest in Sunny Brae, Arcata. The festival was hosted by Humboldt Hot Air, one of Arcata’s local radio stations. 

However, the music festival wasn’t founded in Arcata or even Humboldt County. The first Porch Fest actually began in 2007 in Ithaca, New York, when Gretchen Hildreth and Lesley Greene were inspired to create a community music festival after enjoying local musicians perform from the comfort of their own porches. This first Porch Fest in 2007 sparked several other communities around the globe to host their own. Now in 2025, there are over 230 Porch Fests in the U.S., Canada and Australia. 

Neroli Devaney, Humboldt Hot Air station manager and event coordinator for Sunny Brae Porch Fest, explained how the event is a great opportunity to foster community. 

“It’s a cool neighborhood to try and unite,” Devaney said. “Like, ‘we’re all here, let’s all know each other.’ And that’s a huge part of the Sunny Brae Porch Fest, too. Everyone should meet their neighbors and it’s a great chance to go into your neighbor’s yard and talk to people because you’re being actively invited.”

Devaney coordinated the first Sunny Brae Porch fest last October after years of wanting to host a community music festival. It was a group effort — local businesses like Murphy’s Market in Sunny Brae posted flyers advertising the new event and Humboldt Hot Air booked bands via Instagram. However, this year was slightly different. Every act on the lineup was local to Arcata and the setlist saw an increase in porches hosting bands. Last year, 16 houses signed up to host roughly three bands. This year, 20 houses hosted and over 70 acts performed. 

“This year, every single [band] is local, which is really beautiful to me,” Devaney said. “That’s what Porch Fest is all about. And it definitely gives performers an opportunity to perform in front of people that they maybe wouldn’t always get to perform in front of and get their name out into the community.”

Dinner Service was one of many local bands on the lineup this year. Composed of Arcata locals Noah Thorwaldson, Matt Jioras, Ruben Vadas Williams, Ben Aldag and Hannah Roselee, their music borders the lines of psychedelic rock and indie with 90s and early 2000s punk influence. 

“As someone looking for new music, you have this whole area of town separated where you can wander and find a different band at every corner,” Thorwaldson said. “I think that’s a really cool, interesting way to promote the local music scene.”

Dinner Service first got invited to play at Porch Fest last year, partly because of Cal Poly Humboldt engineering student and Humboldt Hot Air DJ Vadas Williams’ connections to the event’s coordinator. After playing an acoustic set at the fest last year, they decided to return this year — this time with electric instruments. 

Another band on the lineup this year was Ponies of Harmony, a two-piece jazz folk fusion with Katie Belknap on the clarinet, bass clarinet and guitar and James Zeller on the guitar and trombone. Their songs felt like home — a fitting energy for their venue which was the grassy front yard of Sunny Brae resident Connie Stewart’s olive green abode. When asked how they’d describe their sound, they turned to their friend Beau Saunders who had stuck around after the set to lie in the grass and soak up the sun. 

“The sound of home remembered from a dream, carried on harmonious voices,” Saunders said.

The festival went on from 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. and included dozens of different genres of music. Singer-songwriters, punk, cumbia, folk and even a 30-piece steel drum band known as Pan Dulce Steel Drum Orchestra could be heard ringing throughout the streets of Sunny Brae’s lively neighborhood. Young kids ran up the streets, spinning circles around the crowds. Humboldt college students lined up to support their friends’ bands and Sunny Brae’s long-time residents strolled around, watching their neighborhood come together in a celebration of Arcata’s vibrant music scene. 

“As is absolutely the goal of Humboldt Hot Air, being a community radio station, we aim to really amplify the diverse voices in our region and that includes so many different types of people,” Devaney said. “The goal is really to unite the community.”

Mia Costales is a journalism major and the Editor in Chief of The Lumberjack. She hopes to give a platform to underrepresented communities through her writing and provide the public with thoughtful and informed stories. In her free time she enjoys cooking, reading and playing the violin. Contact her at mdc140@humboldt.edu.