On Sunday, November 15, from 1 to 5 p.m., 13 Historic Kenwood porches will host 25 musical acts. The performers play for tips, and listeners bring their own chairs. It is set to be the biggest Porch Music Day the neighborhood has held, and the second one on a November Sunday.
The event started on a date set by a worldwide observance. After one sweltering August, a hurricane season and a reshuffled neighborhood calendar, it ended up on a mild Sunday in mid-November. Once it settled there, it started adding porches.
Where the date came from
The organizers tell the story themselves in the 2026 Porch Music Day map and schedule the Historic Kenwood Neighborhood Association published. In late 2021 or early 2022, a neighbor came across a Facebook post about "Worldwide Play Music On the Porch Day," which takes place on the last Saturday of August each year. A few Historic Kenwood residents got J Kolb and Radio St. Pete involved. The first event was a single porch with a handful of artists on August 27, 2022, simulcast on Radio St. Pete.
Here is how the event has moved since then, using the organizers' own counts:
| Year | Date | Porches | Acts | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Saturday, August 27 | 1 | A handful | Started as a one-porch event, simulcast on Radio St. Pete |
| 2023 | Saturday, August 26 | 9 | 20 | Became annual; the day was extremely hot and sunny |
| 2024 | Sunday, October 13 (planned) | n/a | n/a | Canceled after Hurricanes Helene and Milton |
| 2025 | Sunday, November 16 | 9 | 20 | Returned in fine weather; organizers estimated 300-plus attendees |
| 2026 | Sunday, November 15 | 13 | 25 | Porches spread across most of the neighborhood |
The 2023 event was the first test of an annual date, and it fell on, in the organizers' words, an "extremely hot and sunny" afternoon. "It's Florida August after all," they added. They called the day a success anyway and decided to drop the global August date and make it Kenwood's own porchfest.
Why November stuck
The first fall date the organizers chose was Sunday, October 13, 2024. That event was canceled because of the damage Hurricanes Helene and Milton did to the neighborhood and the rest of Pinellas County.
The move to November happened partly by chance. In 2025, other Historic Kenwood events changed dates, which let Porch Music Day move later to Sunday, November 16. The porch and act counts matched 2023 at 9 porches and 20 acts, but the organizers said the weather was "pretty gorgeous." They estimated more than 300 people came out across all the porches.
The 2026 lineup has four more porches than any year before, and the organizers describe the hosts as "spread across most of the Historic Kenwood neighborhood." On the official map, porches sit along 8th Avenue North, 7th Avenue North, 4th Avenue North, 2nd Avenue North, Dartmouth Avenue North, Burlington Avenue North and 29th Street North. The 2023 event, by comparison, fit on nine porches. Kenwood calls itself St. Pete's first suburb, and this year's music is spread across a good share of it.
Calendar listings sometimes show different numbers. I Love the Burg's event listing mentions 14 porches and 30 acts. The neighborhood association's own schedule shows 13 porches and 25 acts, and its map is the one to plan with.
How the afternoon works
The format is simple. A few details make the four hours go better:
- Bring a chair. The association asks attendees to bring portable chairs so they can sit and listen.
- Bring cash. All the artists perform only for tips, and the association asks neighbors to "bring cash and show the artists some Historic Kenwood love."
- Plan around the half-hour rows. Music starts at 1 p.m. The schedule runs in half-hour rows from 1:30 through 4:30 p.m., and the event ends at 5. Thirteen porches across the neighborhood means you'll be choosing between sets, so check the map before heading out.
- Use the official map. The full porch schedule PDF and the Google map on the Porch Music Day event page show which porch is hosting whom and when. The hosts are neighbors who opened their own porches, so the map is the best way to find each one.
The organizers haven't published a parking or rain plan. The event page is the place to check for any updates as the date gets closer.
Who is on the porches
The 2026 roster has 25 acts. The organizers list Irish and Celtic music, fingerstyle classical guitar, jazz harmonica and a lot of folk. From the published lineup:
- Bite Size, Marty Fouts, David Warren and Acoustic Madness
- Jessica Tomlinson, Sam Shube, June Bunch and Electric Sea
- Fred Bluestone, Charlie Boyle, Wicked Muse and The Winking Pitbulls
- Drunken Shrubbery, Emily Turnage, Tanner Boyle & Friends and Due Angeli
- Lady Stardust, Bill & John, Andy Kirmayer and Shelley Cardoos
- Beach Bum Barry, Deb Ruby & Melissa Grady, TopCasters, Steve Isaac and Mulligan Road
Some of these acts are back from last year. When Creative Loafing listed the 2025 edition in its weekly live-music roundup, the billing read "Bob Anthony w/the Winking Pitbulls/more" for Sunday, November 16, at 1 p.m. The Winking Pitbulls are on the 2026 roster too.
The same fall season, a few blocks south
Porch Music Day opens the cooler-weather stretch of the neighborhood calendar. The next big event outdoors is on Central Avenue.
The Grand Central District Christmas Market runs Friday, December 4, from 5 to 10 p.m. on the 2300 and 2400 blocks of Central Avenue. Vendors will also fill 23rd, 24th and 25th Streets between Central and 1st Avenue South, and those streets will be closed. Like Porch Music Day, it's an evening event on the street, timed for when the weather lets people stay outside for hours.
If you're looking for a new place to eat in the district, Nah Dogs opened its brick-and-mortar shop in August at 18 22nd Street South. Jenny and Jeff Howe's vegan hot dog business opened earlier that month and shares a patio with Tombolo Books and Black Crow Coffee, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The hours the Times published are Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. Sunday isn't on that list, so make it a Saturday stop before Porch Music Day or a pre-market dinner on December 4.
The first Porch Music Day was a single porch on an August Saturday in 2022. On November 15, the music will be on 13 porches from 8th Avenue North down to 2nd.
At Plotkin Homes, we keep track of what happens on St. Pete's porches and streets as closely as what happens at the closing table. If you'd like to talk about life in Historic Kenwood, from Porch Music Day to the Christmas Market, contact us. We're glad to share what we know about the neighborhood.
