17th Annual HONK! Festival 2022 Celebrates Music and Activism

By: Hope O’Shaughnessy

Music and activism.  A great combination.  The 17th Annual HONK! Festival is back
again this year from Thursday, October 6 through Sunday, October 9.  The festival
involves several events throughout Somerville, Cambridge and Boston that will
showcase a variety of musical genres including unplugged DIY music.  Activist events
will occur throughout including events such as the Elm Street event in Somerville on
Sat. October 8 with activists from various organizations such as Extinction
Rebellion/Boston and Beyond Plastics/Greater Boston.  That day will include art
making and street theater.  

All events are free admission and held outdoors (rain or shine).  According to festival
literature, the aim is to “literally blast out, musically loud and rhythmically direct, a
call to come together.”

The latest roster of performers can be found at: honkfest.org.  This year more than 20
activist street bands will perform throughout several neighborhoods according to the
festival’s contact person, Mary Curtin.  The bands include: Somerville-based Second
Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band also founding band of HONK!, aNova
Brazil (Boston, MA), La Banda Internacional de Chelsea (Chelsea, MA), and Banda
Rim Bam Bum (Santiago, Chile).  NOLA-based Young Fellaz Brass Band will also
return after a hiatus.

In 2020, according to a recent press release, HONK! United was created in response to the
pandemic and so an online collaboration that resulted in attracting bands from
Nicaragua to Antarctica to Brazil, which has resulted in 20 HONK! gatherings
throughout the world.

Since HONK!  relies on volunteers to keep its event running smoothly, if you are
interested in contributing even a small amount of time, please contact: 
honkfest.org/help.  To learn more about the history of this event, visit: 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HONK!