Early last year, citizens of Carmel started to prepare for a new music festival that would occur this year. As musicians sent in applications and the event planners rented venues, Carmel Porchfest (Porchfest) began to come together. According to Chairperson of Porchfest Sue Finkam, the event will take place on Sept. 14 in the Arts & Design district of Carmel.

Finkam said the inspiration for this event came from other cities that hosted Porchfest. She said, “(Carmel) Mayor (James) Brainard learned of these while attending a U.S. Conference of Mayors event and felt it’d be a great match for our community.”

To help Porchfest come to fruition, the Carmel Mayor’s Youth Council (CMYC) has worked closely with the committee in charge of the event from the beginning of the event planning process, according to Matthew “Matt” Klineman, president of the CMYC and senior.

He said, “The main reason that we were brought on was to help with volunteer recruitment and registration, which won’t happen until we get closer to the event.”

Finkam said the CMYC would later “provide youth volunteers to help promote the event.”

Since one of the main goals of the CMYC is youth involvement in the community, Klineman said he hopes this “could be a great event for students to look forward to every year.”

Klineman said, “I think this event is already perfectly geared toward high school students just as it is geared to older residents because of its combination of a festival-type feeling with live music.”

According to Finkam, the artists in attendance will be playing a range of music genres, and the committee in charge of the event has ensured that “some of the musical acts are younger performers.”

One of the musical acts performing is Sara Kays, singer, songwriter and sophomore.

Kays said, “I’ll be performing multiple acoustic pop covers and a couple of original songs.”

She said she was first introduced to Porchfest by a vocal coach she used to take lessons from. In order to prepare for Porchfest, Kays said she compiled a list of songs that she would perform at the event and has practiced them regularly.

Everyone, according to Finkam, has a goal for Porchfest. She said, “We would like to provide good, clean fun and have attendees rave about the music they heard.”

According to Kays, she hopes to communicate to the audience when she performs at Porchfest. She said, “I want people to see the emotion and hard work put into the music I write and play.”

Klineman encourages high school students to attend Porchfest.

He said, “(It) will be a unique place for them to enjoy a music festival in their own backyard. (Students will) kind of have the opportunity to plug into the local arts and music scene—something that we don’t necessarily always have the chance to do.”