HONK! Festival 2023: 33 plus activist street bands participating in the 18th annual -- Oct. 6 thru 8

[Mary C. Curtin]

HONK! FESTIVAL
18TH ANNUAL

FESTIVAL OF
ACTIVIST STREET BANDS
THIS YEAR TOTALING 33+

[Banda Rim Bam Bum from Chile
@ HONK! 2022; photo credit
Whitney Kay.]

October 6 through 8, 2023

a wide variety of musical/
activist events planned in
Somerville, Cambridge,
and Boston

(Somerville, MA) 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!

This year, the HONK! bands totaling 33, includes the following (also available at honkfest.org/2023-festival/bands-2023/, which have info links to each band):
aNova Brazil (Boston, MA);
The Brass Balagan (Burlington, VT);
Brass Solidarity (Minneapolis, MN);
brassterisk (Somerville, MA);
The Bread and Puppet Theater Band (Glover, VT);
Chaotic Noise Marching Corps (Seattle, WA);
Clamor and Lace Noise Brigade (Chicago, IL);
Conical Cacophony (Boston, MA);
Detroit Party Marching Band (Detroit, MI);
Dirty Water Brass Band (Boston, MA);
Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band (Somerville, MA);
Environmental Encroachment (Chicago, IL);
Expandable Brass Band (Northampton, MA);
Extraordinary Rendition Band (Providence, RI);
Fly By Brass Band (Somerville, MA);
Forward! Marching Band (Madison, WI);
Ghost Town (Somerville, MA);
Good Trouble Brass Band (Somerville, MA);
Gora Gora Orkestar (Boulder, CO);
HONK Family Band (New York, NY);
The Jamaica Plain Honk Band (JP Honk) (Jamaica Plain, MA);
Leftist Marching Band (Portsmouth, NH);
L Train Brass Band (Brooklyn, NY);
Musicians Action Group (MAG) (San Francisco Bay Area, CA);
The Party Band (Lowell, MA);
Rara Bel Poze (Boston, MA);
Rude Mechanical Orchestra (New York City, NY);
School of HONK (Somerville, MA);
Seed & Feed Marching Abominable (Atlanta, GA);
TMB (Seattle, WA);
Undertow Brass Band (Providence, RI);
Yes Ma’am Brass Band (Austin, TX);
Young Fellaz Brass Band (New Orleans, LA)

As mentioned above, the founding band and continued host of the HONK! Festival recently became the Good Trouble Brass Band -- formerly known as the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band. The band has adopted this new name as of August 2023 to best reflect its own mission as an activist street band. More information re: the name change can all be found at goodtroublebrassband.org

Complete HONK! Festival performance and activities schedules will be made available online on or after 28 September 2023, with ongoing updates all found at honkfest.org.

Basic information:
HONK! Festival
18th Annual Festival of Activist Street Bands.
October 6-8, 2023
Held in Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston neighborhoods.
Held outdoors rain or shine.
Free and open to all; if interested in volunteering, contact volu...@honkfest.org.
For further information:
www.honkfest.org, in...@honkfest.org, 781-285-8639.

HONK! is a not-for-profit, all-volunteer project where many hands lighten the impressive list of festival to-dos. All who are interested in experiencing the strong sense of camaraderie that HONK! generates, can email volu...@honkfest.org plus hou...@honkfest.org. Visit honkfest.org/help for more information on volunteer opportunities and also to make a tax-deductible donation. No donation is too small, or too large!

For complete information and continuous updates on this year’s HONK! Festival, visit honkfest.org, facebook.com/honkfestival, and twitter.com/honkfest.

 

 

--submitted by marycurtinproductions
[on behalf of the HONK! Festival]
c/o Mary Curtin
PO Box 290703, Charlestown, MA 02129
617-470-5867 (cell), mary.c...@gmail.com
"dedicated to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in non-traditional venues"
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