Bellevue Porchella

04.2024

Bellevue’s most popular annual event, which highlights community and musical talent, will be held later this month on the palindromic date of 4.20.24.

It all began back in 2020 during those grim days when a virus had changed the world for many of us. Brooke Ullman came up with the idea while she was out strolling one evening and chanced to hear The Bellevue Bon Temps fiddling up a Cajun storm from their backyard which faces on MacArthur Avenue.

So the seed was planted, and a few months later, on a stifling midsummer afternoon, it was germinated when Brooke watched from her front yard as a family with three kids briefly stopped in front of the home of Haze and Dacey, two local musicians who were playing on their front stoop. 

As Haze played on his upright bass, Dacey improvised a song for the kids. When the family moved on, Brooke crossed the street and told her neighbors how much she enjoyed listening to them play. And then she said this: “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had an outdoor walk-around little music thing.”

They both nodded. “Yeah, it’d be great,” said Dacey. “Will you do it? Will you organize it?”

“I ended up mentioning it to Summer Gentry and she said, ‘You absolutely have to do this. This is a great idea. We absolutely have to do this. Get on the call and you have to mention it,’” Brooke told me years ago. 
This year’s event to be held from 12:30-6pm on Sunday, April 20 features more than 35 bands. Fauquier Avenue from Laburnum to Bellevue will be closed from 11:30 am till 6:30 pm to all traffic. For more information please visit https://bellevueporchella.com/