Porch concert series to fill Huron Lightship neighborhood with music Sunday
Music lovers will be able to get a glimpse of the St. Clair River just north of Pine Grove Park as they listen to the sounds from a returning free neighborhood concert series this weekend.
Event organizer Barbara Payton said the Lightship Porch Concert Series — named for the nearby Huron Lightship and the surrounding residential area — was initially started after she saw a larger event series in a Metro Detroit community.
“I thought, you know, it’d be nice to bring something like that to Port Huron here, and I love that we have such a thriving music scene here now. And I know a lot of Detroit musicians just from doing this for so many decades,” she said, referencing her own background as a singer. “So, I decided, well, what the heck? We have these great old porches, and I decided to start it up last year. We had about 300 people come through.”
This year, it’s slated for 2 to 6 p.m. on Sunday with the listed location at 825 Prospect Place.
Payton said performers will appear on her porch and that of her neighbors.
The street was expected to be shut down with food trucks being on-site, she said, encouraging attendees to “bring a lawn chair and an appetite.” Among the vendors were Red Kettle Coffee Roasters, whose downtown location was announced to be closing earlier this year; other food vendors were listed as Jamaican Jerk, What the Fry, and Yo Mama’s Frozen Treats.
Listed acts included the organizer’s group Barbara Payton and the Instigators, as well as the Audio Birds and others.
As of Friday, the Facebook event for the Sunday setup had garnered a response from more than 400 individuals with 105 slated to go and 314 interested.
Payton said she hopes to keep growing the event annually, adding, “This year is going to be kind of a determining factor as to if I’m going to keep it in this area or move it to a park or something, but I’d kind of like to keep it right in the neighborhood.”
She said holding in on a Sunday seemed a good time to import some activity when “it’s kind of sleepy here.”
Additionally, the event was dedicated in spirit to Jim Acheson, who Payton said was “a big part of the reason that we even have the Huron Lightship.”
Acheson, who died last spring, was involved with the Huron Lightship Committee and later honored by the city for being instrumental when the museum site was ultimately brought to town in 1970.
“He came the first year, and it was just so wonderful to see him there supporting it and his wife Susan, and he was just such a great man,” Payton said.
For more information, visit the Lightship Porch Concert Series Facebook event page.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Porch concert series to fill Huron Lightship neighborhood with music Sunday
