There is a tradition every year at Oberlin College, when classes end and students start preparing for their finals, for a big, nine-hour music festival to take place on the porch of Tank Hall. On May 9th from 1 to 10pm, Porchella takes after its namesake, Coachella, for the gathering of people and the hours of music. However, where Coachella is a high intensity, drug-heavy event, Porchella is more of a lazy picnic, where students lay out picnic blankets on the lawn to sprawl out and listen to the music.
The event is an Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) staple. OSCA, one of the largest student-run nonprofits in the country, allows students to economize on housing and dining by cooking and cleaning for each other. Every OSCA dorm has their own version of an RA called a Housing Loose Ends Coordinator (HLEC). Being an HLEC at Tank Hall means more than solving roommate conflicts and keeping the lounge clean — it entails organizing Porchella. HLECs Jonah Keener and Lily Conner, both in their third year at the college, are hoping to make this year’s festival a memorable one.
The organizational effort that Keener and Conner are putting in is impressive. This year’s festival will feature 22 bands, a t-shirt vendor, ice cream sales, and a pizza oven. This year, there were more bands that wanted to play than slots available. Everybody made it in, Keener said, “except for two acts. One was a DJ” — DJs are not traditionally featured in Porchella — “and the other one was a solo act that wasn’t in Tank or OSCA.”
Although Keener said that “part of the fun is that you don’t know what the next thing will be,” you can bet that the band members will be familiar with the OSCA tradition. Every band on the setlist has an OSCAn in it. This preference can feel insular, but the co-ops are so deeply intertwined with the culture of music on campus that it would be difficult to find a band on campus unaffiliated with OSCA.
“It’s also historically folk,” said Conner. This year’s Porchella features more than this one genre, but the organizers honor the roots of the event by prioritizing folk acts as they’re putting all the pieces together.
Of course, Conner and Keener have to worry about more than just the ‘who’ and ‘what’ factors. Having to fit 22 bands into the nine hour run time, they’ve had to cap each performance at fifteen minutes. Some bands would rather not be limited by this time constraint. “We had a Tank resident who wanted to play for two 45-minute sets,” Conner laughed.
“We also have to emcee the event,” Keener added. This means that they’ll introduce every band before they perform, including their own band. Conner, who plays the guitar and sings, explained that she and Keener would appear as “a Neil Young cover band. But also, it might be other songs. So you can just say we’re in a band. Like, HLECs are in a band. They will be performing with no name.” Just third on the setlist, the no-name band will perform sometime between 1:30 and 2pm. If you’re curious to know whether they’ll cover Neil Young or Neil Diamond or perhaps play “Space Oddity” to pay tribute to Neil Armstrong, don’t miss them.
It’s understandable that the HLECs haven’t had the time to iron out the details of their own band yet. They have the whole event to worry about, including the funding. The HLECs are expected to make the event happen, no matter the cost. “We have to put up $2000 because we want to do 300 shirts,” Keener said. “Also, we can’t use OSCA ingredients for the pizzas we might sell or the ice cream, stuff like that.”
But for the HLECs, the tradition is worth it. Conner said that she went to her first Porchella before she had joined OSCA. “I went my freshman year and was like, this is so cool.” To Conner, a big measure of success for this upcoming festival is the introduction of new faces to OSCA. “It’s a way to spread the word,” she said.
Because it is handed down from year to year, Porchella has a fundamental tension that each new organizer must grapple with — where is the balance between upholding tradition and the ever-evolving nature of music and the student body? During the interview, last year’s HLEC happened to walk by, catching himself just before he walked into the next room.
“Is this about Porchella?” he asked. Turning to Keener and Conner, he said with complete earnestness, “Remember your roots.”
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