‘Musicians in their natural habitat’: Music Safari returns to East Kessler Park for year 4

Floramay Holliday and Gabor Racz stand in front of their East Kessler Park home. Photos by Kathy Tran.

Picture this: It’s December 2020. We’re eight months into the pandemic, and the holidays aren’t the same. Everyone has been in their house for way too long and neighborhood walks are the only thing keeping many people’s sanity intact.

Floramay Holliday’s livelihood ground to a stop when the pandemic hit. As a musician, she couldn’t perform in shows or tour with her band, so by December she was going a little stir crazy.

To counter that restlessness, Holliday, alongside her “Hungarian harmonica playing husband” Gabor Racz, began to play Americana music from the porch of their East Kessler Park home for neighbors walking by.

“I just got the feeling that everyone was getting depressed and a little desperate and that live music was something we really missed doing together, like group therapy almost,” Holliday said.

Holliday’s weekly porch show became more well known around the neighborhood, and, at the same time, she began to realize she was not the only musician in the vicinity.

She also realized she was not the only musician itching for a show.

“Our neighborhood is where all the musicians come to live, and I never knew that,” Holliday said. “I had the idea that if everyone played on their front porch on a Sunday afternoon, at the same time, the audience could walk around from house to house and sort of observe the musicians in their natural habitat, like a safari.”

The East Kessler Park Music Safari made its debut that December, with musicians playing on the front porches of their homes — which were naturally laid out in a sort of circular path — for passing neighbors to enjoy and celebrate.

Now in its fourth year, the Music Safari will feature 12 musical acts from a variety of genres that will play concurrent shows from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on April 23. The event is free and open to everyone, not just residents of the neighborhood.

Sarah Aburg joined the safari that first year, performing with her husband. The jazz duo has lived in East Kessler Park since 1997, and performed together since 1979.

When Holliday floated the idea of the music safari, Aburg said she jumped on the opportunity.

“It was an opportunity to play and I think we were all hungry for that,” Aburg said.

Sarah Aberg performs with her jazz trio in front of her home. She has lived in East Kessler Park since 1997.

Like Holliday, Aburg said she never realized how many musicians lived in the neighborhood. After three years of the safari, she said the event “generates a special feeling” for everyone involved.

Now, the East Kessler Park Neighborhood Association sponsors the event. Holliday said that in past years, neighbors have sponsored ice cream or burgers for attendees, and that every year the event seems to grow a bit more.

But Holliday said one thing that won’t change is the free cost of admission.

“At one point (the neighborhood association) wanted to pay the bands and they all refused. They said, ‘No, that’s not what this is about, it’s a free event.’ We want to play music because we love it,” Holliday said.

While many of the musical acts are entering their fourth music safari together, Holliday said the event has not created the tight-knit musical community someone may expect.

“We’ve never actually met each other, that’s the funny part about it, because we all play at the same time,” Holliday said. “So, this year, we’re going to do this after party where everyone’s going to play another set, and we’ll be able to see each other play for the first time, which is kind of cool.”