Now, because of Porch Jam, the 12-year-old knows what it’s like to look out at a crowd and see family, friends and strangers alike cheering him on.

Hundreds attended Porch Jam, Lincoln’s first-ever community-led free concert that took place on the porches of residents in the South Salt Creek Neighborhood around Cooper Park. Four of the five stages were on porches, and the fifth stage was under an awning in the park. Each stage was named after a flavor of jam — cherry, strawberry, peach, blueberry and blackberry.

“It’s just a good way to support the community,” said Andrea Hayes, a Lincoln resident who just moved back from overseas. She attended Porch Jam with her best friend’s daughter, Liz Costello, a musician that loves to support young students.

More than 20 bands played over the span of five hours, including bands like Coleman’s band, Cold Ashes, which is made up of Blue Raven Music students learning to play a variety of instruments.

The bands were a mixture of Americana, roots and folk artists.

Jenni Hansen originally came up with the idea of Porch Jam. Omaha does a similar porch festival, but there was no such thing in Lincoln, according to Hansen.

From there, Hansen assembled a team of women — Justina Clark, Jenny Richardson and Christina LeFevre — to bring this idea to light, relying on their knowledge of the music industry, networking skills and creative powers.

Clark is a resident of the South Salt Creek Neighborhood and led the charge in asking her neighbors to turn their porches into stages.

“We just really love the idea of sitting on the porch and knowing your neighbors,” Clark said.

This aspect of community is what drove Crystal Bock Thiessen to this neighborhood back in 2017.

The older-style homes with larger porches that dominate the neighborhood provide the perfect opportunity to socialize.

Originally inhabited by Volga Germans in the 1870s, South Salt Creek represented a place where immigrants could maintain a sense of community after leaving their home countries.

Thiessen and her neighbors have maintained that sense of community ever since.

“It’s easy to become isolated without your own community, but we like to have things like (Porch Jam) to bring people out and bring people together,” Thiessen said.

Events like Porch Jam bring people together from different walks of life, said Jill Synovec.

Synovec saw an advertisement for the event on Facebook and decided to spend the afternoon listening to music.

In addition to the bands, there were three food trucks, a face-painting station and plenty of bubbles and sidewalk chalk.

Porch Jam also partnered with nearby Park Middle School and the Boys and Girls Club of Lincoln to help host a canned food drive for a Little Free Pantry located in Cooper Park. 

Through working with the South Salt Creek Community Organization, Clark learned about Civic Nebraska’s Strong Neighborhoods grants. She applied for the grant and received $1,000 to sponsor Porch Jam.

Hansen and Richardson own their own businesses and also were sponsors for Porch Jam. Using their relationships with other businesses and members of the community, the women were able to gather more sponsors and fundraise enough to have a jumpstart on next year’s event.

Clark said Hansen put together a “dream team of organizers.” With their combined areas of expertise, the four women were able to pull off a successful day of fun and music.

“I would like it to become an annual event and something that carries a really strong, positive reputation in the community for a free event that’s all age-friendly,” Hansen said.