Nyack, New York – The Nyack Neighborhood Music and Arts Festival is set to bring dozens of bands to porches and other locations throughout Nyack on Saturday, October 3, after severe weather forced organizers to postpone the inaugural event by one week.
Festival organizer William Byrd discussed the rescheduled event during an appearance on the AM Rockland News podcast, explaining that organizers began preparing for a possible postponement before the nor’easter arrived.
“We made the call on Thursday,” Byrd said, noting that some people involved with equipment and other preparations were expected to begin arriving Friday. Organizers had already contacted participants earlier in the week to determine their availability in case the festival needed to move.
Most participating musicians were able to accommodate the new date, although some bands had to withdraw because of prior commitments. New performers were added to fill some of the openings.
“It looks to be rock and rollin’ for Saturday with nice weather,” Byrd said on the podcast.
The Nyack Neighborhood Music and Arts Festival was created as a community-wide Porchfest-style event, with musicians performing at numerous locations instead of on a single centralized festival stage. Earlier plans called for more than 100 musical acts at approximately 40 locations, although the schedule was reduced following the postponement.
During his AM Rockland News interview, Byrd said the revised festival was expected to include approximately 66 bands performing at 26 different porches and locations.
“This all started inspiration from another Porchfest and my love of Nyack and wanting to bring something bigger and better to Nyack,” Byrd said.
The festival is designed to encourage visitors to walk through Nyack’s neighborhoods, moving between performances and discovering musicians along the way. The format also gives residents an opportunity to host performances directly on their properties.
Byrd said much of the planning has been decentralized, with individual porch hosts and musicians working together to coordinate equipment and other logistics.
“I didn’t want to be a middleman with 26 porches,” Byrd said. “I’m letting them do their own logistics, and they seem to all be coming together.”
Community meetings at the Nyack Library also helped shape the festival. Byrd said different participants brought ideas to the meetings and helped organizers determine how individual locations could operate.
Sound equipment has been another consideration. Organizers have encouraged musicians with public-address systems to bring and share their equipment when possible, while additional equipment could be rented if necessary.
For visitors, Byrd described the event as a “BYOE festival,” meaning “bring your own everything.”
“Bring your own chairs, bring your own refreshments,” Byrd said.
Portable toilets will be available in some areas, while visitors can also make use of businesses and other facilities around Nyack.
Parking is expected to consist largely of existing street and public parking. However, the festival has been designed as a walkable event rather than one that requires visitors to drive between performances.
“Once you park, bring some stuff with you,” Byrd said. “Within one neighborhood you can go to four or five places very easily.”
The festival’s schedule and map allow visitors to locate participating musicians and performance sites and organize their day according to location, performance time and musical genre.
The Nyack Neighborhood Music and Arts Festival is free and open to the public. The organization behind the event was incorporated in March 2026 and is a federally recognized nonprofit dedicated to bringing musicians, artists and communities together through accessible arts programming.
After months of planning and an unexpected weather delay, Byrd said the goal remains to create a community event centered on live music and the neighborhoods hosting it.
“Musicians meeting musicians and musicians meeting neighbors and people in the town,” Byrd said, “it’s gonna be a wonderful day.”
The festival’s schedule and map allow visitors to locate participating musicians and performance sites and organize their day according to location, performance time and musical genre. Additional festival information, including schedules, participating artists and event updates, is available at nyackneighborhoodmusicandartsfestival.org.