Matt Ross on Highland Square's PorchROKR

Well, it is a one-of-a-kind event, at least in my mind. You talk about music, arts, food, and a gathering of people that just like a good time. It's Porch Rocker, and it's happening Saturday, Highland Square, and kind enough to join me on the show this morning, one of the lead volunteers with Porch Rocker, and that's Matt Ross with us, and Matt, thanks for getting up. I know it's a busy week for you, putting all the details together, but... Talk about it when we talk 2026 porch rockers. It's going to be exciting again. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on the air. This should be one of our biggest years yet. It's in the footprint that we have a lot of real estate. We should have, not should, but we will have 160 bands on 40 porches. And this year also we're doing a number of different things to bring in even more excitement for kids. We have our kids zone that's expanded this year. We have one-of-the-kind pets. We'll have the summit metro parks. We'll also have along with that, the Akron Symphony Orchestra, bringing along their instrument petting zoo. I think we have 23, 24, 23 food trucks. So it should be a great time. Yeah, it's a terrific time. It's a, it's a real gathering of music, arts, and just a fun time in Akron. My kids were asking me, Matt, last night, because we were talking about Porch Rocker and making plans to come down Saturday. They said, how did this all begin? And I said, you know what? I don't really know. And I'm not sure if you do, Matt, but do you know the history of Porch Rocker? I know enough to be dangerous. I guess I know that, you know, it started Anita and Jim Moran, Marin had started this actually back in 2013, so it's been just to be a 14th year. And I think it started out originally as an arts and music festival, and it still is an arts and music festival with sustainability being a big, big component of that. And it's just really grown year after year. In fact, in 2013, they thought it would be easy to do two different, two porch rockers that year. There's a lot of moving pieces, and, you know, it's gone to what it is today, which is, you know, once a year. It's the biggest event in Akron. A lot of people, you know, even outside of Akron know about it. So, yeah, it's a great year. Yeah. With us as Matt Ross, Matt is one of the volunteers with Porch Rocker at Highland Square this coming Saturday. So I imagine in the morning at some time, what, 11 o'clock or so, you'll start and go into the evening. I'm not asking you to go item by item, but in a general concept, is it 11 until late night? How's it work?

Yeah, it's 11 until the last band will go on at, I believe, at 730. So that'll be the headliner band. And then, you know, folks after that will kind of spill into the Highland Square area. But it's, you know, it's literally an all-day event where you can walk the neighborhood. You know, you can eat, like you mentioned, we have a beer garden. This year, our beer garden, we partnered with Thirsty Dogs. We have a local brewery there. There's going to be... you know, a variety of different vendors as well that you can hop around and see. But it's just a great, great time, great family event. Matt, I mentioned you're a volunteer. Something like this doesn't happen with a lot of hours put in, work put in. You mentioned your sponsors, but this is also fueled by a lot of volunteers who just love working for this event. Maybe talk about that volunteer brigade that's put together to make this happen on Saturday. Absolutely, yeah, it wouldn't happen without our volunteers. I mean, we have over 100 volunteers day of, and then we probably have a core group of 20, 25 folks that kind of work throughout the rest of the year, planning this, contacting sponsors, you know, working on logistics, working on licensing, working on everything else that we need to do. Matt Ross is with us, volunteer with Porch Rocker. By the way, if you go to the Highland Square, go Highland Square, Akron.org, they've got a wonderful map and kind of a schedule to lay out everything. And Matt, also, I want it to be known that. When we're talking about rocker, sometimes people have the misconception that it's just rock and roll music all day long from morning until evening. But the one thing that I love is the diversity of the arts that you have there with porch rocker and especially with music and beyond. So talk about that. There's all sorts of music. Absolutely, yeah. We have a committee that ticks the artists. We probably get over 400 bands that submit, and our goal is to make it as diverse and enjoyable as wide of an audience as we can. So there's everything from punk rock to math rock to... folk, indie, I mean, you name it, you can find all the categories. If you go to our website, you can actually sort by the different categories if you want to find a particular genre of music. And then when we talk about the porches, I think this is what's unique about this one-of-a-kind event, specific porches with the music. And that's what really, I think, makes us to a step above most music festivals. You're actually using porches. Absolutely. We're out there knocking doors early in the spring and trying to get folks to donate their porches. And, you know, most of the people that participate in that, I mean, it's just an amazing time for them as well. I mean, I did it one year. I had a band on my porch or multiple bands on the porch. And it's just a, you know, it's a great community event. I mean, we couldn't do without the volunteers or the neighbors.

Okay, let me ask you this, Matt, because you're going to get a lot of people and then I'll let you go because I know you've got a lot to do this morning. What about, and I know there's parking certainly in the Highland Square area. Are there any shuttles or do we just do our best to park? What about coming on in for Saturday? Yeah, I'm glad you asked that. In fact, we've partnered with Metro RTA this year, and folks will be able to park down at the Akron Public Schools parking lot, downtown Akron. There'll be another announcement going out there later today about the other parking options, but they can hop on the metro, they can ride for free and rock for free. So it's completely free for the parking and completely free for the shuttle. That's the metro main line that runs long market, and that'll run all day. All right. Matt Ross has been with us, one of those volunteers for Porch Rocker, happening Saturday, Highland Square. You heard Matt mention everything begins at around 11 o'clock, and then the last band he said goes on at 7.30. Take some time and enjoy this because this is pretty darn special here in Akron, and it's very unique for Akron as well. Matt, thank you so much. I'll let you get back to putting this whole thing together for Saturday. I appreciate you taking time to join me on the show this morning. Thank you. Thank you. For more interviews on 93.5-1590 WAKR, tune in to the Ray Horner Morning Show Monday through Fridays between 6 and 9 o'clock and listen for more interviews at wakr.net and our WAKR app.