Forward! Marching Band

Ted McManus

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Arrival Information

Nearly everyone is flying in at various times on Thursday afternoon/evening, including our piccolo player Andy who is flying in from Germany to keep HONK!'s status as an international festival.

One of our first-timers managed to book himself a flight that arrives after midnight on Thursday night. Sigh.

A few with prearranged or independent accommodations will fly in on Wednesday.

2 couples are each driving separately with our large instruments and will arrive Thursday at times unknown since they are not on fixed schedules. Our band should be complete with our instruments by 11 AM on Friday.

1 of those couples will be driving an RV and will need a place to park it. The other vehicle is not oversized.

1 additional couple has launched on a year-long tour of the country in a sleeper van. We are hoping they manage to connect with us. Since this is hard to predict this far out, we are not requesting housing for them (they can sleep in their van), but if they manage to get there, a parking space would be a great help.

Departure Information

We lose a couple of people Sunday evening.

The rest fly out Monday, mostly by 1 PM. Maybe 6-8 would be available for 10AM Monday breakfast.

A handful with independent accommodations will stay until Tuesday.

COVID requirement problematic?

No

People coming:

32

Have transportation?

No

Transportation needs:

- Parking spot for RV
- Possibly: parking spot for a regular-sized van

People needing housing:

8

Housing contact person:

Ted McManus

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Special housing needs:

8 would like housing from the Honk pool.

These 4 have previously attended Honk:
- Dawn & Matt are a married couple. They are driving an RV and need someplace to park it, though not necessarily at their host's house.
- Charlie has a bad hip and would appreciate close proximity to Davis Square
- Dave Z is vegetarian

These 4 are first-timers:
- Jon is allergic to cats and would prefer a kosher household
- Adam is allergic to cats and pork
- Ken is retired and would appreciate a bed
- Dan is a friendly guy (well, so is everybody else too!)

Local hosts:

1 staying with prior host Susan McLucas; 1 staying with prior host Rahul & Emily Bhargava; 1 staying with prior host Jeff & Marilyn Altbush; 2 staying with prior host Mary Chitty; 2 staying with prior host Beryl Minkle and Haakon Chevalier; 2+child staying with prior host David Blank-Edelman.

Scheduling Information

FRIDAY, October 6th
  • Afternoon political action around Boston
  • 5:30p-8:00p dinner for bands
SATURDAY, October 7th
  • 12:00p-9:00p main music festival (usually two sets)
  • 8:30p-1:00a band-only party
SUNDAY, October 8th
  • 9:00a breakfast for bands
  • noon-1:45p parade from Davis to Harvard Square (gather 11a for setup)
  • 2:00p-6:00p set in Harvard Square (not guaranteed)
  • 2:30p-7:00p 8-10 minute set on the Main Stage (not guaranteed)
  • evening (time TBA) - demonstration at local house of correction
MONDAY, October 9th
  • not available this day
Do you have any other scheduling needs/requests?

If possible, we'd like to work with a labor group on Saturday. We'd like to play "We Got That Fire" as "We Want Fair Wages," which an audience that didn't come out to see a rally can still potentially sing along with.

We can certainly adapt to other causes, but this would be ideal.

We were hoping for details/parameters on giving speaking time to orgs, but received no response to our questions:

"We'd like more details/parameters on these proposed activities:

- Give time during a Saturday set for an org to speak
- Invite an org onstage with you for the all-band revue
- Give time during a Sunday set for an org to speak

- Do these orgs know how to use a megaphone? Do they know how to keep a crowd engaged? (These things are not automatic; it took us significant time to learn these skills.)
- What is the expected duration of their speaking time?
- Is this prompted by the Harvard class that studied Honk and found it hard to discern from performance alone that this is a festival of activist street bands? At least 3 bands do spring to mind as self-evidently activist."

PRONK!?

No

  • Give time during a Saturday set for an org to speak
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