Somerville Porchfest Music Festival Rebrands as ‘Couchfest' Amid Pandemic

Somerville Porchfest, the joyful grassroots music festival held each year in Somerville, Massachusetts, is going virtual this year.

The festival, dubbed "Couchfest" this year, will bring the music of local artists to viewers' screens on May 9.

The annual festival started in 2011 and has been growing ever since, according to the Somerville Arts Council, the organizer.

Typically, hundreds of local artists are assigned time slots to play their music on their porches. Festival goers use maps and schedules to determine which porches to visit to listen to their favorite artists.

But this year, the council decided that the traditional format was not possible with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Instead of playing music from their porches, local artists will post videos of themselves at specific times from 12-6 p.m. on May 9, according to the council.

Not even a pandemic can stop the music in Somerville. There may be no PorchFest this year, but CouchFest has risen like a phoenix from its ashes. Get full information on how to register at the link below. @artscouncil https://t.co/YYEM0sjUq6 pic.twitter.com/wwc7u8Pyoh

— City of Somerville (@SomervilleCity) April 20, 2020

Registration for artists is open until May 7. To find out when artists are playing, visit the Couchfest page.