HONK! Festival, 18th Annual: Festival of Activist Street Bands, this year totaling 33+, with a wide variety of musical/activist events planned in Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston.
HONK! Festival 2023 has just revealed their participating bands roster for this year's 18th annual gathering of activist street musicians. Current count is at 33 bands, with this year's participants hailing from all across the United States. With memberships as big as 30 players, many of this year's festival participants will travel some distance (for example, from Georgia, Texas, California, Washington, Colorado) to join in this annual uproariously jubilant purposeful gathering held during ... view more »
HONK! Festival 2023 has just revealed their participating bands roster for this year’s 18th annual gathering of activist street musicians. Current count is at 33 bands, with this year’s participants hailing from all across the United States. With memberships as big as 30 players, many of this year’s festival participants will travel some distance (for example, from Georgia, Texas, California, Washington, Colorado) to join in this annual uproariously jubilant purposeful gathering held during Indigenous Peoples Day weekend.
What is HONK! exactly, one might ask? HONK! is a very unique musical movement that first began right here in Somerville back in 2006. Out of those humble beginnings, HONK! has become a recognizable worldwide phenomenon that warrants its own wiki. HONK! is now short-hand for what is fully expressed at honkfest.org/about/, for example:
“At full power, these bands create an irresistible spectacle of creative movement and sonic self-expression directed at making the world a better place. This is the movement we call HONK! striving in a HONK!-like manner to help make the world a better place.”
Or perhaps HONK! can also be explained by the cantastoria** entitled “What Is HONK?” that was first revealed at the very first HONK! Festival back in 2006. **This theatrical story-telling performance has been performed at each local HONK! Festival ever since. The link provided is of the 2012 version, which was captured at the opening ceremonies for HONK! 2012, with musical participation by HONK!’s founding and host band, the Good Trouble Brass Band (formerly known as the Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band): youtu.be/qLepBbZBx3w?si=m7El9Le9Vy459LwD.
What HONK! is NOT is all that impatient racket that erupts when stuck in Boston’s incessant traffic jams. HONK! is NOT about get out of my way!
The full press release can be found at: https://honkfest.org/wp-content/images/HONKPR_onLetterhead_2023.pdf
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