Porchfest will return after one-year hiatus

After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, music will fill the neighborhood around Lawrence Park in downtown Morgan City again Saturday when the Fifth Annual Lawrence Park Porchfest is held.
The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. and feature musicians playing on porches of homes and one business on Third and Everett streets. Each performer will play for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
“Very excited about it,” co-chair Charlie Solar Jr. said of this year’s event. “We were disappointed that we obviously couldn’t have it last year. Hopefully it’s a great turnout.”
During the event, Third Street from Everett to Freret streets and Everett Street from Third to Second streets will be blocked.
Solar said Porchfest will be the first live music event in Morgan City since the pandemic canceled events last year.
“It’s going to be outside,” he said. “We’ll have plenty of room to social distance.”
Porchfest is put on by the Kiwanis Club of East St. Mary.
Soft drinks, water, alcohol as well as hamburgers and pastalaya are among the items that will be sold.
Ice chests are not allowed as the event is a fundraiser with proceeds being used for Lawrence Park playground equipment and the park’s beautification.
A corn hole tournament will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
The idea for the event was brought to Morgan City by local dentist Dr. Francis Scott Sicard.
According to Porchfest.org, the event was first held in 2007 in two neighborhoods in Ithaca, New York.
Since that first year, the idea has expanded across the United States and into Canada with 130-plus Porchfest events, according to Porchfest.org.
Sicard told The Daily Review in 2016 that he attended his first porchfest in Cleveland, Ohio.
While he said Morgan City would be a good place for it for multiple reasons, the top reason Sicard wanted to host the community event was to honor the memory of his son, Jacques O’Neal Sicard. Jacques Sicard passed away at nearly 5 months old.
This year’s event will feature the following musical lineup:
—11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Hallie Autin and Jordan Halfen, on the porch of Clay and Jodie Horschel.
—12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.: Cliff Hillebran and Josh Broussard, on the porch of Ferris and Bonnie Gilmore.
—1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.: Rick Lorenzo, on the porch of Barry and Joan Dufrene.
—2:45 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Deric Anslum and Chase Landry, on the porch of Ed and Bonnie Leonard.
—4 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.: The FamBand, on the porch of Barry Dufrene CPA, Greenwood Marine Management & Marquis Management Group.
—5:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: Left on Red, on the porch of Angela Kraemer.
—6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.: Driftwood Acoustic, on the porch of Barry and Joan Dufrene.