HONK!

HONK!, also known as HONK! Fest, is a festival of activist street bands held annually on Indigenous Peoples' Day weekend in Somerville, Massachusetts. Each year since 2006, an all-volunteer organizing community invites more than 25 bands from around New England, North America, and the world to participate in this free three-day event that showcases acoustic and ambulatory bands playing free music in public spaces. Since its inception, it has inspired additional HONK! festivals in other locations.
HONK!s so far have been staged in Somerville, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Austin, Texas; Providence, Rhode Island; New York, New York; Eugene, Oregon; Montpelier, Vermont; Spokane, Washington; Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, Brazil; and Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Although each festival is locally organized and there is no central HONK! authority, they share common features. Each HONK! invites twelve to over thirty bands, who play multiple sets in outdoor public spaces over the course of two or three days. These shows are free to attend. Some HONK!s also feature a parade. The festivals are volunteer-run and get support from local sponsors.
The bands invited to play at HONK! share common characteristics: they are ambulatory, they use instruments that can be simultaneously carried and played, and they utilize little or no electronic amplification. As a result, the bands are able to play while moving. There is no generally agreed-upon label for this type of band; labels in use include "activist street band," "radical marching band," and "community street band."
Although many of the bands that play at HONK! have the phrase "marching band" in their names, they bear only superficial resemblance to a traditional marching band. Traditional marching band characteristics derive from their military history: they tend to feature regimented, synchronized movement and matching uniforms, and play music that has been composed and arranged in advance, with the goal of presenting the band as a cohesive unit without any differentiation between individual members. Band members are typically drawn from and affiliated with some larger organization, such as a school.
A HONK!-style street band, on the other hand, more often tends to encourage the individuality of its members: it may have a theme to its garb rather than a uniform, with individual members free to implement that theme in a manner of their own choosing; similarly, its music may offer more chances for improvisation. Many HONK! bands incorporate traditional marching band instrumentation, sometimes augmented with other instruments or vocalists; others use instrumentation drawn from non-Western music traditions, such as those of a Brazilian samba school. A HONK! band may exist for a specific purpose—some perform primarily at activist events, for instance—but they are typically autonomous entities not affiliated with another organization.
The longest-running HONK! has taken place in Somerville, Massachusetts' Davis Square neighbourhood every October since 2006. It was begun by a committee of members from a Somerville activist band, The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band, who saw the need for a gathering of like-minded souls interested in applying the joy of music to the work of promoting peace, social justice, and civic engagement. Since 2007, it has included a parade titled "Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes and Feet!" The parade features the bands along with other non-musician participants, including puppeteers and visual artists such as the Bread & Puppet Theater and organizations that promote transportation alternatives and environmental and social justice, such as Bikes Not Bombs.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced all of their events to online.
HONK NYC! was born in 2007 when The Pink Puffers (Rome, Italy), Environmental Encroachment (Chicago), and March Fourth (Portland, Oregon), visited New York City following that year’s HONK! in Somerville. Events around the city included a dinner party at the space The Change You Want to See on Havermeyer Street, hosted by members of Brooklyn’s Hungry March Band. This set up a tradition of creating events for bands that wanted to visit NYC and play gigs after HONK! fest. In 2008, Titubanda from Rome were presented in parties, parades, parks, and rallies. In 2009, the name BONK! Brooklyn HONK Festival was adopted and used through 2011. The festival was renamed as HONK NYC! In 2012. In addition to small parades and free outdoor gigs, HONK NYC also has ticketed nighttime events in clubs and warehouse spaces.
HONK! Fest West has been held every spring in Seattle starting in 2008. In its second year, HONK! Fest West 2009 took place in several locales around Seattle: Friday night in Ballard, Saturday night in Georgetown, Sunday daytime at Gas Works Park and Sunday evening at The Vera Project. HONK! Fest West 2010 took place Friday night in Fremont, Saturday afternoon in the Central District, Saturday night in Georgetown, and Sunday afternoon at the Alaska Junction in West Seattle.
HONK!TX has been held in Austin every March starting in 2011. The 2011 festival took place on East Sixth Street on Friday, in the North University neighborhood on Saturday, and, following a march through the center of Austin, in Pan-Am Park on Sunday. Subsequent years have used South Congress instead of East Sixth.
HONK! Fest Eugene (PKA Yonk!) was founded in June 2015 when local Brazilian percussion ensemble Samba Ja hosted SambAmore (Arcata, CA), Environmental Encroachment (Chicago), Junkadelic (Australia) along with local bands Kef, The Beatcrunchers, and High Step Street Band on 2 outdoor stages. Since then it has been held every year in the Whiteaker neighborhood of Eugene, Oregon the week following HONK! Fest West in Seattle. It features traveling groups from Seattle's festival as well as local percussion and brass ensembles. In 2017 the festival changed names from Yonk! to Honk! Fest Eugene and grew into a 2-day festival and retreat for touring bands.
HONK!Oz was inaugurated in January 2015 in the community of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia as a fringe festival of the long-running Illawarra Folk Festival in the nearby community of Bulli.
HONK!Rio was inaugurated in August 2015, taking place in various communities in and around the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
HONK SP takes place in São Paulo, Brasil and started in November 2017, bringing together a vast number of groups, including Brass Bands and Carnival "Blocos", occupying the city's districts.
PRONK! is a one-day festival in Providence, Rhode Island. It happens the day after the Boston-area HONK! ends and features many of the same groups that performed in Somerville and Cambridge over the weekend.
HONK!BC is the first Canadian version of the HONK! Festival and it was organized by Open Air Orchestra Society. It was inaugurated in August 2018 in Vancouver, BC and took place at multiple venues in the Commercial Drive area (East Vancouver) such as Britannia Community Services Centre, Strange Fellows Brewing, Grandview Park and The Legion on Commercial Drive.