HONK! Festival Promotes Social Justice, Celebrates Cambridge
October 30, 2017
Throughout the weekend of October 6th, the HONK! Festival—a grassroots festival where bands spread awareness of social justice issues in their communities through song and dance—took place in Cambridge.
The HONK! parade was most popular on Sunday, October 8th. Starting at 12:00 PM, crowds began marching in Davis Square, Somerville, continuing down Massachusetts Avenue and ending in Harvard Square, Cambridge at 2:00 PM. The parade featured many local marching bands and dancing troops from the greater Boston area, along with several bands from other U.S. states—people of all races, ages, and sexes participated in the three-day festival.
Even members of the CRLS community participated in the HONK! parade, like sophomore Amelia Bronfman who played the saxophone in the “School of Honk” band.
This year was Bronfman’s first year participating in the HONK! Festival, and she commented that she joined “because not only do you get the chance to have a great time and learn a lot, you gain a real sense of community.”
When musicians like Bronfman played their last notes, they arrived in Harvard Square, where the performers were welcomed into Harvard Square’s 39th celebration of Oktoberfest. Stands of local restaurants and classic food carts lined Massachusetts Avenue, JFK Street, Brattle Street, and Church Street. Set up outside of the T station on Massachusetts Avenue was a stage where the bands jammed out to their best setlists throughout the afternoon.
According to Bronfman, the music is unique; a mixture of styles from different countries, different artists, and is played with a lot of passion and vigor.
The HONK! parade is not only for entertainment, but it is also a public demonstration [in its own right]. As bands proceeded down Massachusetts Avenue on October 8th, many signs were waved with slogans such as: “Talk about Climate Change,” “Yes to Immigration,” “We are United,” “I’m with Her,” and “Free Palestine.” The parade was so special because each group displayed an equal amount of vigor for their different causes; it was reminiscent of the Women’s March that took place last January, or the Boston Free Speech counter-protest that took place this past August. The event has inspired other festivals near Brooklyn, Seattle, Austin, Detroit, and Providence, as well as ones in Brazil and Australia.
Trudi Cohen, one of the founders and organizers for the HONK! Festival told the Register Forum that the event was established in 2005 in Davis Square by a group of locals who wanted to perform music with street bands and “support social justice actions, especially in light of the Iraq War.” Cohen continued, saying that “the original idea of the festival was to “bring like-minded musicians together to share experiences and strategies and songs. We made it a public event, and the glorious surprise was how successful it was—for the participating musicians and also for the joy it seemed to bring to the public.”
The HONK! Festival and parade truly celebrates the diversity of Cambridge and its surrounding cities. In Cohen’s words, “We believe that participatory music-making can change the world. We want to share joyous, loud, soulful music in support of social justice. We want to help define public space and how it can be used.”
This piece also appears in our October print edition.
