HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands

The HONK! Festival, a music fest originally conceived and presented in 2006 right here in Somerville, caught on immediately in the local area. Since then HONK! has also become an international phenomenon. Full details on how HONK! came to be, the philosophical and pragmatic approaches behind the HONK! movement, and what differentiates a HONK! band from other music-makers in the streets, can all be found at honkfest.org/about:

“By describing HONK! bands as activist, we are referring to bands which are socially engaged — some in direct action and outright political protest, others in community building, be it performing for social justice or community-based organizations or conducting workshops in the public schools. Further, by performing at street level, usually for free, without sound amplification and with very little distance between artist and audience, HONK! bands create a participatory spectacle to reclaim public space in ways that place them at the heart of activist politics.”

Taking a deep dive into the HONK! Wiki can also reveal the far-reaching aspects of this particular progressive musical movement.

Circling back to the source of all this momentum, the original local and longest running HONK! Festival has continued its annual presence ever since 2006. In some shape or form HONK! has carried on, not daunted by the challenges presented, especially during 2020 and 2021.

The local HONK! organizers just pivoted to present those particular annual HONK!s, in ways that made sense given the obvious obstacles. In 2020, HONK! United was born, a very spirited “glocalized” online collaboration. In 2021, HONK! turned its eye to championing very hyperlocal neighborhood causes, branching out to support even more Boston-area communities, which often encompass neighborhoods that are only a few city blocks wide.

With all this local HONK! momentum, informed by the experiences of both HONK!s 2006-2019, as well as the lessons learned from 2020 and 2021, what will HONK! 2022 be like?

As they say, stay tuned. For further updates, keep referring to honkfest.org.