HONK! FESTIVAL - 16TH ANNUAL

 

The 2021 festival schedule is now available!

Live-Streaming for long-distance fans on YouTube!
Find your stylish 2021 merch here!

October 9, 2021 Health, Hope… and HONK!

HONK! 2021. YES, there will be HONK! events this October during Indigenous Peoples Day weekend. YES, definitely mark your calendars. AND… in deference to Covid concerns, it will look very different from previous festivals.

This is the year of a decentralized festival, where a wide variety of on-site events will take place in neighborhoods throughout greater Boston. In partnership with social justice, community and arts organizations, 15+ local bands will play throughout the day on Saturday, October 9th, in parks, squares and on street corners in Somerville, Cambridge, East Boston, Hyde Park and Roxbury. They will play to support events designed by the partner organizations, and to raise awareness of the good work being done in our communities.

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

SAFETY PROTOCOLS WILL BE IN PLACE AT ALL TIMES Attendees are requested to play their role by wearing masks during the performances to keep the band and themselves safe.

Plans are nearly finalized, with HONK! organizers collaborating with local community groups, to allow for this year’s HONK! to convene right on their own neighborhood’s doorsteps. To be held outdoors, in-person, on-site, in many gathering places within the local area’s decentralized neighborhoods.

This year, HONK!’s intention is to reach communities that have not been able to participate in the past, for example Nubian Square in Roxbury, while also retaining HONK!’s historic connection to Davis Square in Somerville.

This year, all the participating HONK! bands will hail from nearby locations. Health precautions will be followed, adaptable and adept enough to pivot, depending on what is required for neighbors to gather safely at that time. We will not be holding our usual multi-band Davis Square-to-Harvard Square parade this year.

HONK! 2021 will be the year to achieve its smallest carbon footprint ever, while still delivering multiple neighborhood events co-sponsored by grassroots community organizations and featuring over 15 local brass and percussion bands who spread joy and justice wherever they perform. HONK! strives to think globally by acting locally, and this year the plan is to delve deep into neighborhoods that constitute the hyperlocal communities that make up Boston and its adjacent cities. This year, HONK! is collaborating and organizing side-by-side with activist groups right on their own neighborhood turf. During HONK!, street bands will join them where they live and work.

(updated 10/8/21)