The annual Honk! festival is back Oct. 4-6, bringing the sounds of brass, drums and social justice to the streets of Somerville. It’s one week earlier than usual for the festival of activist street bands and its climactic march to Oktoberfest, which is put on by the Harvard Square Business Association in Cambridge.
Rising political tensions this year could offer another challenge, said Mary Curtin, a spokesperson for Honk! and a former member of the band that started it all nearly two decades ago.
Honk! usually takes place over Indigenous Peoples Weekend, because the Monday holiday gives musicians an extra day to return home after the festival, Curtin said. This year, though, the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur lands on Oct. 11, just ahead of the Oct. 12-14 weekend replacing Columbus Day.
It was a tough decision logisically, but ultimately the festival date was moved, Curtin said. The HSBA moved its Oktoberfest date to match.
“We have never done an Oktoberfest without Honk!,” said Denise Jillson, executive director of the association.
This year’s edition of the music event includes 33 bands from around the country – from as far away as Austin, Texas; Seattle; Pittsburgh; and New Orleans – and Belo Horizonte, Brazil. While the weekend offers plenty of fun, bands come also to use music as a vehicle for social change; they are paired with activist groups who help raise awareness and translate the bands’ messages into action. The participants of Honk! also can organize a demonstration at a local house of corrections “to raise awareness about those who may be incarcerated for reasons other than actually committing a crime,” Curtin said. “In the current political climate, particularly around immigration, this is certainly one of many injustices that concern Honk! and what is now termed the Honk! movement.”
The event’s origins in 2003 during an antiwar parade set the tone. Curtin helped put together a brass band called The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band that took part, marching through Boston with many other groups coming from Somerville and Cambridge to wave antiwar flags and lead call-and-response chants. (Second Line changed its name last year to The Good Trouble Brass Band.)
The atmosphere of the parade was tense – some protesters deemed the antiwar sentiment also anti-American as it took place not long after the terrorist attacks of 9/11; the country had been told Iraq was involved and must be invaded because it had weapons of mass destruction.
When the band played, though, “something happened,” Curtin said: The protesters joined in with the music, which allowed for dialogue. Honk! was born aimed at using music to facilitate conversations.
This year, the Israel-Hamas conflict is the topic that “tears people apart,” Curtin said. A polarized political climate is a main concern, and the festival is organizing workshops to facilitate conversations for band members to talk among themselves about their approach for performances, when there will be moments for everyone to speak – some planned and some impromptu, she said. Other pressing issues include the climate crisis and the upcoming election, contributing to what Curtin calls a “volatile year.”
Curtin has concerns about the reception of the festival this year. Counterprotests are increasingly more common as tensions rise politically.
“There will be trained deescalators present during various parts of the festival available to specifically address any untoward aggressiveness,” Curtin said.
As in previous years, the official festival kicks off on a Friday – this year, Oct. 4 – with early evening lantern parades. Bands gather the next day in the park behind the Davis Square T station for a solidarity event, followed by performances throughout the square. Sunday features the traditional march from Davis to Harvard Square, where bands perform during Oktoberfest.
Some bands bring more than 40 musicians, and festival organizers are looking for members of the community to host band members for the weekend. “Can you host one, two, a dozen traveling musicians?” organizers asked in messages this week. “The festival takes care of most of their food and transportation needs. Really, they just need a place to sleep.”
There’s a survey to help make assignments. Questions can be sent to at housing@honkfest.org.
Information about Honk! is here.
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Yom Kippur starts at sunset on Friday, October 11 and runs all day until sunset on Saturday, October 12. So if Honk were held on its usual weekend, almost all of the Saturday festival would be on the Jewish holiday.
Honk was also held a week early in 2011 for the same reason.