HONK! Festival: 14th annual festival of activist street bands.

The very first HONK! Festival, Somerville-based and fourteen years strong, has always been clear on its most basic premise, to literally blast out, musically loud and rhythmically clear, a call to come together. To gather outside in celebrating the many positive aspects of life – while also delivering a heads up if those positives take a negative turn. HONK! is dedicated to keeping tabs on these transitions, be it locally or globally, with the shifts now coming at a rapid rate. In HONK!’s mind, the best way to stay grounded is to take a stand, get out there with musical instruments in hand, or just clap those hands, and carry on in peace with a beat and a dance step or two.

That activist philosophy has certainly caught on, with HONK!s now popping up throughout the world. At last count, twenty-one HONK! Festivals. This year there will be a total of 25 bands (and counting!) participating in the Boston-area HONK!, several coming from as far as Brazil, Chicago, Germany, New Orleans, and Wisconsin.  The current list of bands & schedules, along with ongoing updates on the kickstarter campaign & volunteer opportunities, can be found at honkfest.org.