{"id":38938,"date":"2026-09-18T10:44:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38938"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:44:30","slug":"lights-on-festival-will-illuminate-area-porches-with-music-art-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/lights-on-festival-will-illuminate-area-porches-with-music-art-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"LIGHTS ON! festival will illuminate area porches with music, art, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Local porches will be abuzz with activity on Saturday, September 26, when Porchlight Arts hosts its very first LIGHTS ON! Art & Music Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival is the initiative of the Porchlight Arts collective, which was launched earlier this year by a group of Downtown Aurora residents, looking to bring some extra arts, culture, and fun to the Town\u2019s historic core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Collective\u2019s goal this year, in partnership with the Town of Aurora, was to transform porches in the downtown area into stages for live music, art and creativity \u2013 giving residents and visitors alike a free afternoon of community, culminating at Town Park at 5.30 p.m. with a live concert from the acclaimed Canadian band, The Sadies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPorchlight Arts launched earlier this year as a volunteer-led, grassroots initiative focused on celebrating and building community connection through arts and culture,\u201d say organizers. \u201cAt our launch, we shared the idea of creating an event where people could wander through one of Aurora\u2019s oldest neighbourhoods and unexpectedly encounter musicians and artists on local porches. On September 26, that idea will come to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeginning at 1 p.m., visitors will be able to walk through the neighbourhood from porch to porch for live performances and art. The musical lineup includes, among others, folk\/indie singer-songwriter Krista Currie, Toronto-based alt-country\/roots artist B. Knox, and Aurora jazz guitarist and composer James Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe event then moves into Town Park, where 10 visual artists will have work on display and for sale, alongside food and beverages. At 5:30 p.m., acclaimed Canadian band The Sadies will headline a free concert. What makes the event special is that it is free and isn\u2019t taking place at a traditional venue. Residents are opening up their porches and yards, and artists and musicians are being woven right into the neighbourhood. The community is encouraged to experience Aurora in a unique way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Porchlight Arts co-founder Ariana Dalie is part of The Happiness Mafia, a live music and production company serving the GTA which has partnered with Aurora Town Square on a number of events, says the idea for LIGHTS ON! was to help grow the Town\u2019s \u201carts scene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing together a group of like-minded neighbours \u2013 \u201cfive different women with areas of expertise,\u201d she says \u2013 their first step was to reach out to the community \u2013 and the community certainly answered the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very fortunate because we\u2019ve received a lot of support from the community, and the community is really excited also that we\u2019re doing this because local businesses are going to be able to be involved,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re providing opportunities also for artists, musicians, and anyone who has a passion for art and involving the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt our kick-off event [earlier this year], people were interested and we had a lot of people volunteer their porches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These porches will form eight unique stages to visit on the day of the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have four porches with live music and four with art that people can browse and buy,\u201d says Dalie, noting their website features an interactive map with locations all within walking distance of each other, biographies of participating musicians and artists and more. \u201cIt\u2019s art and live music from 1 \u2013 4 p.m., and then Art in the Park from 3 \u2013 7 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also volunteer opportunities for community members to get involved and help make the magic happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want participants to explore Aurora, to know that we have good things happening here, that there are people willing to bring something to the community that we can all enjoy for free, that we have a beautiful Town with community members that are willing to help out and make it a more vibrant community,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe just want to make sure that people come out, enjoy the day and different art and music, and it is a [chance] to get to know your neighbours a little bit more. People from [all] parts of Aurora can spend an entire day where they can do a free activities\u2026 and end with a beautiful free concert by The Sadies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs this is our first year, we hope to continue to grow it and for people to get in touch if they want to be involved, whether it is a sponsorship, whether it is being part of our community \u2013 we\u2019re always looking for people who have different types of expertise that can help us put this together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, visit porchlightarts.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Local porches will be abuzz with activity on Saturday, September 26, when Porchlight Arts hosts its very first LIGHTS ON! Art & Music Festival. The festival is the initiative of the Porchlight Arts collective, which was launched earlier this year by a group of Downtown Aurora residents, looking to bring some extra arts, culture, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-a82","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-25 22:55:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38939,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38938\/revisions\/38939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}