HONK! UNITED
A VIRTUAL WORLDWIDE RALLY
FOR ACTIVIST STREET BANDS
AND THEIR RESPECTIVE
LOCAL PARTNERS
Organized by the HONK! Festival,
based in Somerville, MA (USA),
to be accessed online with
most events available
for public viewing.
Photo credit: Jesse Edsell-Vetter
HONK! is ON! This year realized as HONK! United.
Not in the on-site rambunctious musical manner, which has been the HONK! activist street band gathering tradition for the past 15 years. Out of necessity, HONK! 2020 is to be realized in October as a virtual 2-day “glocalized” rally, HONK! United, held on behalf of the international community of activist street bands and their respective local partners.
HONK! in theory and practice has actually been travelling down this HONK! United road for quite a while now. Since the original HONK! Festival took Somerville, MA (USA) by storm in 2006, HONK! festivals have erupted in different locations worldwide, as far-flung as Seattle, Rio, Wollongong, Providence, Vancouver, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Austin, and more.
Up until this year, all these individual HONK!s have been held on different dates throughout the calendar year. In each case, the HONK! festival format has fostered an artistic, activist, and cultural exchange between the local street bands, along with their local partners, and several invited guest bands, many of whom have travelled quite a distance to join in.
A number of these visiting bands, especially those who do not have a HONK! gathering opportunity back home, take it upon themselves to travel from one HONK! site to another throughout the year, exchanging ideas all along the way. Inevitably another empowering HONK! is born back home upon their return.
This year 2020 has changed all that, with all these on-site HONK! gatherings postponed indefinitely.
But the necessity to gather, clamor, and share cannot be postponed.
This is where HONK! United comes in, by orchestrating a specific virtual 2-day engagement, involving the entire HONK! family of kindred spirits, all connected within this extensive universal network. Every HONK! affiliate out there – be they organizers, musicians, artists, activist partners -- will have an opportunity to contribute content to HONK! United, whether that be raucous live streamed or recorded music, sense-of-place interviews, action photos, fun(ny) stories, stark realities, celebratory realizations. A series of online workshops will also be planned, some for the HONK! Community and some open to the public.
The HONK! United collaborative effort will be virtually launched on Saturday, October 10th, and continuing into Sunday, October 11th. The world will be invited to attend.
More info will be posted here as it develops.
— The HONK! Organizing Committee
(updated 8/18/20)
Organized by the HONK! Festival, based in Somerville, MA (USA), to be accessed online with most events available for public viewing.
Photo credit: Jesse Edsell-Vetter
HONK! is ON! This year realized as HONK! United.
Not in the on-site rambunctious musical manner, which has been the HONK! activist street band gathering tradition for the past 15 years. Out of necessity, HONK! 2020 is to be realized in October as a virtual 2-day “glocalized” rally, HONK! United, held on behalf of the international community of activist street bands and their respective local partners.
HONK! in theory and practice has actually been travelling down this HONK! United road for quite a while now. Since the original HONK! Festival took Somerville, MA (USA) by storm in 2006, HONK! festivals have erupted in different locations worldwide, as far-flung as Seattle, Rio, Wollongong, Providence, Vancouver, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Austin, and more.
Up until this year, all these individual HONK!s have been held on different dates throughout the calendar year. In each case, the HONK! festival format has fostered an artistic, activist, and cultural exchange between the local street bands, along with their local partners, and several invited guest bands, many of whom have travelled quite a distance to join in.
A number of these visiting bands, especially those who do not have a HONK! gathering opportunity back home, take it upon themselves to travel from one HONK! site to another throughout the year, exchanging ideas all along the way. Inevitably another empowering HONK! is born back home upon their return.
This year 2020 has changed all that, with all these on-site HONK! gatherings postponed indefinitely.
But the necessity to gather, clamor, and share cannot be postponed.
This is where HONK! United comes in, by orchestrating a specific virtual 2-day engagement, involving the entire HONK! family of kindred spirits, all connected within this extensive universal network. Every HONK! affiliate out there – be they organizers, musicians, artists, activist partners -- will have an opportunity to contribute content to HONK! United, whether that be raucous live streamed or recorded music, sense-of-place interviews, action photos, fun(ny) stories, stark realities, celebratory realizations. A series of online workshops will also be planned, some for the HONK! Community and some open to the public.
The HONK! United collaborative effort will be virtually launched on Saturday, October 10th, and continuing into Sunday, October 11th. The world will be invited to attend.
More info will be posted here as it develops.
— The HONK! Organizing Committee
(updated 8/18/20)