honk is coming!!!!!
Dan
www.honkfest.org. Best parade ever. Vets for Peace will be marching again.
Honk! Festival returns for 10th year in Somerville
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ESSDRAS M SUAREZ/ GLOBE STAFF
Joe Correira with the band Environmental Encroachment from Chicago was among those taking part in the Annual Honk Festival last year.
They will bang their drums, blow their horns, and stamp their feet — all in the name of good, clean fun.
On Oct. 9, the annual Honk! Festival will return to the streets of Somerville and Cambridge for a three-day musical jamboree featuring an array of acoustic acts from across the world.
The giant happening and dance party is in its 10th year.
“At full power, these bands create an irresistible spectacle of creative movement and sonic self-expression directed at making the world a better place,” according to event organizers.
Mary Curtin, a spokeswoman for the festival, said that aside from increasing the number of featured performers, organizers have done very little in terms of changing the festival’s quirks since it first got its start.
“What we find is that our fans really like the similarities every year, even though within us we are loaded with surprises and things pop up out of nowhere when we perform,” Curtin said. “In a lot of ways, though, we have fallen into a pattern that seems right to us.”
Honk! is billed as an “unplugged” event, and is composed of brass bands and orchestras from as near as Somerville and as far away as Paris and New Orleans. Featured performers will also travel from Montreal and Quebec City to take part in the event.
There will be a total of 28 bands this year.
The annual event will start with a “lantern parade” through Davis Square on Friday evening.
On the following day, which is considered the main event, each band will be spread throughout the “nooks and crannies” of the Davis Square neighborhood.
The event will conclude Sunday, with the Honk! Parade, a mix of activists and musical stylings that winds through the streets of Somerville before coming to an end in Harvard Square, where additional performances are planned. The parade has a sociopolitical message that calls for people to “Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet.”
Greg Jenkins, executive director of the Somerville Arts Council, said the city has supported the festival through the years because it helps showcase the community, and draws out crowds of people who interact with the lively entertainment.
“It attracts a ton of attention,” he said. “It’s one of the more expansive, multiday festivals that we have, and it brings people in from all across the country — and the world.”
The full schedule can be found on the event’s website, www.honkfest.org. Details about performances and the locations of the bands have not been revealed.