The Inaugural Newnan Porch Fest 2025 Makes History in Newnan, Georgia!
I’ve always been a believer in The Beatles’ lyric, “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends.” A few years back, a friend told me that he had organized an annual live music event in 2019 at his house (i.e., his front porch) in Griffin, Georgia, and asked me to come one year to do photography. Saying yes to my friend Steve Quick was one of the best decisions I have made in my career as a photographer. I was fortunate to photograph Steve’s Annual South Street Porch Fest in 2021, 2022, and 2023, while meeting so many good-hearted people, and not to mention, listening to some talented bands and artists from all over the state of Georgia. In 2024, Steve and his family took the year off and did not organize an event at their home. However, this did not mean that the dream of a DIY musical event was over. Now entering the chat, Melody Kiser (HeyDreamer) reached out to Steve with an idea to create something bigger in Melody’s hometown of Newnan, Georgia, after HeyDreamer performed at the Virginia Highland Summerfest in Atlanta, Georgia, in June 2024. Here is a fun little fact: Melody Kiser, plus fellow Newnan Porch Fest 2025 performers Elliot Phillips and Hunter Callahan, have performed at every one of Steve’s South Street Porch Fest events.
Melody knew they could organize an intimate music event like the Virginia Highland Summerfest in downtown Newnan and add some improvements with their personal touch to this event. Steve Quick (DJ Steve Quick), Melody Kiser (HeyDreamer), and Kris Youmans (The Kris Youmans Band) would team up in 2024 to organize the inaugural Newnan Porch Fest in the town of Newnan, Georgia. After a year of city council meetings, reviewing 100 band submissions, and coordinating with volunteers, vendors, homeowners, and local businesses, what transpired this Saturday in May of 2025 will be remembered in Newnan's history.
The inaugural Newnan Porch Fest 2025 lineup includes a staggering 50 artists: HeyDreamer, Rattled Bones, Miquel Olascuaga, Hunter Callahan, The Kris Youmans Band, Elliot Phillips, Female Fiction, DozeGuys, Rhythm Major, Unk N'Nem, Love, Laura Lee, Kraken’s Release, Candler Hobbs, Emma Holloman, Melodie Fort, Rogan Rogers, IDna Glitch, SAE Jam Band, Russ Gordon, Tavis Lance Mapp, The Hardy Boyd Band, The Whole Problem, 7,000 Amps, Leonard Washington, Conway Boseway, Lauran Hunt, Maddy Chontos, Jeanine Duke, Moises J. Gordon, Tyler Lowman, Sweet Grass Sally, Tripp’n, The Straynotes, Jonny Fields, The Expectations, Trevor Meadows, Mary Martin, Ellis Lowery, Soggy Bottom Waffle Boys, COC Acapella Group, The Duncan Brothers Band, Towne Park Drive, Kit + Char, David Pippin Group, Parachutes, Briarsweet, The Vinyl Birds, and Lee Harvey Wallbanger.
The inaugural Newnan Porch Fest 2025 lineup was carefully curated by Kris Youmans, Steve Quick, and Melody Kiser, who is also closing out the day’s festivities at The Alamo VIP After-Party with their band HeyDreamer alongside Rattled Bones and Miguel Olascuaga. Miguel Olascuaga is also known for their work as the lead singer with the Atlanta based Americana/folk string band Blood on the Harp. Now my goal to start the day was to photograph 30-35 bands/artists at the Newnan Porch Fest 2025, but I soon realized it was an ambitious goal. My apologies to the bands/artists that I did not get to photograph, I hope to watch you all perform and take photos of you all on the next round!
The Newnan Porch Fest 2025 offered a “diverse lineup of talented musicians”, artists & vendors throughout the area, multiple food trucks & drink vendors with a good variety for everyone, a multitude of fun kid activities and games throughout the festival, a dog-friendly atmosphere, upgrades for an enhanced VIP experience (Sold-Out!), a cornhole tournament, an optional “Opening Act” pre-party, an optional “Encore” after-party with a concert featuring special guest artists, and lest we forget the Newnan-Coweta History Center Garden Walks!
The inaugural Newnan Porch Fest 2025 includes seven (7) stage/porch locations where artists started performing at 11 am until HeyDreamer took the stage at 8:15 pm and closed out the event. The seven various porch performance areas included homes located on Wesley Street, Temple Avenue, and College Street in downtown Newnan, Georgia. Other performance areas in the downtown Newnan area included the ChildrenConnect (Kids’ Zone), RPM, Bodega, History Center, Historic Garden Walks, and the Alamo VIP After-Party located at the Newnan-Coweta History Center.
Starting the day at 11 am at the Newnan-Coweta History Center porch, jazz artist Melodie Fort entertained the V.I.P. attendees who arrived early for a delicious, wholesome breakfast and mimosas, plus we all got to watch a phenomenal performance by Melodie Fort. Once the clock struck noon, many performers across various porch locations on Wesley Street, Temple Avenue, College Street, and other locations in the downtown area started this inaugural event: COC Acapella Group, Mary Martin, Elliot Phillips, IDna Glitch, SAE Jam band, Candler Hobbs, Conway Bose, and Love, Laura Lee. To start the day, we managed to watch Mary Martin, COC Acapella Group, and the SAE Jam Band in that brief but blissful hour of music. I was sad that I missed Elliot Phillips, Idna Glitch, Candler Hobbs, Conway Bose, and Love, Laura Lee during the kick-off of the Newnan Porch Fest. I quickly realized that it would be hard to move on from each performance throughout the day because everyone on this lineup was going to captivate the audience in attendance.
Next up at 1 pm: Russ Gordon, Tavis Lance Mapp, The Hardy Boyd Band, Kraken’s Release, Trevor Meadow, and Rogan Rogers. I was able to make The Hardy Boyd Band, Russ Gordon, and Tavis Lance Mapp’s performances during the allotted hour timeslot. First up was the brilliant The Hardy Boyd Band who had gathered a large crowd with their performance on Wesley Street, and rightfully so as they performed a beautiful set for those in attendance. Next up, I walked upon Russ Gordon’s performance, and I heard the band playing a sweet cover of the Allman Brothers Band “Midnight Rider”, so I knew I was in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the performance of Tavis Lance Mapp, I missed their cover of everyone’s favorite DGAF progressive country artist Sturgill Simpson’s “You Can Have the Crown” off his critically acclaimed debut album High Top Mountain. Luckily, I was able to hear a brief clip of this incredible performance by Tavis Lance Mapp and his band thanks to a video recorded by my lovely partner, Crystal. Teamwork makes the dream work!
The 2 pm - 2:30 pm performances included Leonard Washington, Sweet Grass Sally, Tripp’n, The Straynotes, The Duncan Brothers Band, Emma Holloman, Maddy Chontos, and The Whole Problem. During the 2 – 2:30 pm timeslots, I managed to watch Leonard Washington, Sweet Grass Sally, Tripp’n, The Straynotes, and The Whole Problem. We started off the 2 pm set with the Leonard Washington Band, who were set up and playing a fiery set of tunes on a porch on Wesley Street. The crowds had started to fill up during the previous hour, but you could see a significant difference as more people gleefully joined in the festivities in downtown Newnan.
It is worth noting that after watching Tripp’n and The Whole Problem perform, I can safely say that the future of alternative rock/rock ‘n’ roll bands in Georgia is in safe hands, thanks to bands like them. There is one more band to add to this list of up-and-coming alternative rock/rock ‘n’ roll bands, Soggy Bottom Waffle Boys, who would perform later in the day. All three bands possess the ability to command the attention of the audience with their skillful performances, and they even added some masterful covers of some classic tunes from artists ranging from the Allman Brothers Band to Collective Soul to Pearl Jam.
By the time we noticed it was time for the 3 pm performances, we were surprised that four hours of incredible music had already passed. The 3 pm – 3:30 pm performances included Towne Park Drive, Unk N’Nem, Kit + Char, The Kris Youmans Band, Ellis Lowery, Jonny Fields, Jeanine Duke, and 7,000 Amps. During the 3 pm scheduled performances, we managed to watch some phenomenal performances by Jonny Fields at the Newnan-Coweta History Center stage and the smooth jazz fusion sounds of Unk N’Nem performing on Temple Ave. in front of a lovely multi-story home. Unk, who is the founder of Unk N’Nem, has also performed with The Headliner Band at Steve’s South Street Porch Fest in 2022, so he was no stranger to wooing the audience that gathered on Temple Ave. to watch his remarkable band.
The 4 pm – 4:30 pm performances included the David Pippin Group, Parachutes, Hunter Callahan, Briarsweet (closing out the RPM porch), Moises J. Gordon, and The Expectations (closing out the History Center porch). During this timeframe, I managed to watch the very gifted David Pippin Group and the smooth sounds of Moises J. Gordon at the Historic Garden Walks stage. My crew utilized the rest of this timeslot to recharge with some food and water, where we parked our car in the V.I.P. parking lot at the Newnan-Coweta History Center.
There were so many food vendors to choose from, and we wish we could have tried them all, especially The Mad Greek (IYKYK). Since time was of the essence, we saw a much shorter line at the Tacos and Tequilas Mexican Grill food truck, so we made a dash to secure some tasty tacos and quesadillas. Once we arrived at our vehicle, we were happy to find the hand washing stations were still functioning late in the day. What an amazing feeling to freshen up after a long day of walking around listening to some unbelievable tunes from many astounding bands/artists.
It was hard to believe it was already time for the 5 pm – 5:30 pm performances, which was also the closing out all the porch stages, including the ChildrenConnect porch and the Historic Garden Walks porch: The Vinyl Birds, Lee Harvey Wallbanger, Soggy Bottom Waffle Boys, Rhythm Major, and Tyler Lowman. My crew managed to attend Lee Harvey Wallbanger, Soggy Bottom Waffle Boys, and Rhythm Major’s performances during this timeslot. Between the effortless sounds of the full jazz ensemble of Lee Harvey Wallbanger, the funky soulful sounds of Rhythm Major, or the alternative rock/southern rock vibes of the Soggy Bottom Waffle Boys, we were so enthralled with these three artists/bands that we did not make Tyler Lowman or The Vinyl Birds’ performances. Sometimes, one hour is just not enough when you are in the zone.
Now, since we were in the final stretch of bands/artists to perform after the 6:30 pm timeslot, three out of the final five bands/artists were very familiar based on our history with Steve’s South Street Porch Fest. Our good pals in the band Female Fiction (RPM) and Miguel Olascuaga (The Alamo V.I.P. After-Party) were up first, entertaining the masses who had made their way to both local downtown Newnan businesses, RPM and The Alamo. It is always a great time catching up with both Female Fiction and Miguel Olascuaga while performing at one of these events. It is worth noting that Miguel’s set at The Alamo was moved up and started early, so I was a little late for the party and missed the start of what was an incredible set by the talented gothic-folk guitarist.
Rattled Bones would be next up at the Alamo VIP After-Party at 7:15 pm. While at 8 pm, DozeGuys closed out the last porch at the RPM porch. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we were not able to attend the 7:15 pm performance of Rattled Bones at The Alamo V.I.P. After-Party. With that being said, I hope that we can cross paths soon! We were able to watch DozeGuys tear it down at the RPM stage during their 8 pm performance. There were many performances all day that grabbed the attention of the crowd, but this set from DozeGuys was rather exceptional. One of the major highlights was when a guest singer came on stage to help the band perform a superb rendition of the hit single from The Black Pumas, “Colors”. Closing out the festival at The Alamo V.I.P. After-Party was the wonderful and talented band HeyDreamer featuring Melody Kiser. I was happy to see HeyDreamer having such a great time on stage performing for the VIPs who had gathered at The Alamo for this incredible farewell celebration. After successfully organizing the inaugural Newnan Porch Fest 2025, Melody and their band, HeyDreamer, had the crowd dancing and singing along to their hits.
First off, I would like to extend my gratitude to Melody Kiser, Steve Quick, and Kris Youmans for their hospitality. I am very proud of what you all have accomplished in this first year, and I am excited to see what the future holds for this event. What a fantastic day! Perfect in every way. If you did not attend this year’s inaugural Newnan Porch Fest 2025, then I suggest making plans to attend next year’s 2nd Annual Newnan Porch Fest 2026! It is never too early to start planning your next adventure. You will thank me for it later.
You can revisit past reviews exclusively at Concerthopper of Steve’s South Street Porch Fest celebration in Griffin, Georgia, by checking out these links below:
· “The 3rd Annual Steve’s South Street Porch Fest 2021: It’s A Celebration with Friends!”
· “The 4th Annual Steve’s South Street Porch Fest ’22: A Celebration of Great Music & Friends!”
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