This weekend, June 21 – 23, is Honk Fest West, the annual conclave of community street bands from across the nation, and Saturday, June 22nd they’ll be taking to the streets at the Fremont Solstice Parade, beginning at 3:00PM, before traveling on to Gas Works Park for an afternoon of musical revelry until 8 p.m. What exactly is HONK! you ask? Well, we’re glad you asked and all too happy to provide the answer (thanks to the HONK! website, or course) :
HONK! festivals are a different sort of music festival. These festivals are part of a global renaissance of community street band culture providing music by the people for the people. We at HONK! Fest West are thrilled to be a local mainstay of this musical renaissance. HONK! Fest West 2013’s mission is to celebrate community music in the public spaces of Seattle with free fanfare performances representing diverse musical influences. Like all HONK! festivals, HONK! Fest West is family friendly and always free to the public.
These ‘marching bands’ take to the streets with a common purpose: to share music with the public and shatter exclusionary principles and defy simple categorizations. These are not the town bands of old – they are the new, the fresh: a sonic carnivàle spectaculare!
This year’s HONK! Fest West will be the biggest yet. We are pleased to partner with the Solstice Parade and Seattle Art Museum to present Twenty-nine (!!) bands from all over North America in the streets and parks of Seattle to entertain the public with musical innovation and exploration.
Our festival is part musical gathering, part community activism. Many of us play an instrument. Some don’t. But all of us have found that live, energetic, mobile, acoustic music—no matter which side of the mouthpiece you are on—brings audience and band together in something like family. A raucous, playful family.
Come HONK! with us on June 21st, 22nd and 23rd!
On Friday, June 21st, HONK! Fest West returns to the corner of Vale and Airport Way in Georgetown from 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. Music continues until midnight inside The Mix (21+).
Saturday, June 22nd, HONK! Fest West is excited to partner with the Fremont Arts Council and the Solstice Parade! We are pleased to be a part of Solstice Parade’s 25th year in the streets of Fremont, before traveling on to Gas Works Park for an afternoon of musical revelry amidst and astride one of the best views of the city and Sound from 3 – 8 p.m.
Sunday, June 23rd, HONK! Presents a revue of all our HONK! Bands at the Seattle Art Museum from 12-3pm! This event is free and open to the public. Then follow us down to the Columbia City Theatre at 7pm for a wrap party and jam session with anybody left standing.
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People can join in on a flash singing mob with them at Gasworks Sat.