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Allison
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Allison
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Dave
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HONK!
Festival 2008 Press Release |
| For
Immediate Release |
| Street
Music Festival/Parade/Symposia/Concert |
| October
2008 |
|
HONK!
Festival website: www.honkfest.org
|
| Media
Contact for HONK! Festival: Ken Field, press@honkfest.org,
617-491-1917
|
THE
THIRD EVER |
|
HONK! FESTIVAL OF ACTIVIST STREET BANDS |
| Somerville,
Cambridge, Medford |
|
October 10-12, 2008 |
| 25
activist street bands from around the world will convene
for the third ever HONK! Festival in Medford, Somerville,
and Cambridge over Columbus Day weekend, October 10-12,
2008. |
| The
Festival will commence on Friday afternoon October 10th
at noon with workshops and a 4-6pm symposium, all at Tufts
University's Granoff Music Center, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford,
MA, for and about musicians applying their music to effect
social and political change. The public is invited to
attend free of charge.(www.tufts.edu/musiccenter) |
|
On Saturday October 11th from 11:30am until 9pm 25 street
bands from around the world, including an estimated 350
musicians, will converge on Somerville's Davis Square
for an afternoon and evening of free public music making.
Participating bands will include the Original Big 7 from
New Orleans, the 34-member Titubanda from Rome, and many
others as listed at http://honkfest.org. |
|
Sunday October 12th will begin at 11am with a parade from
Somerville to Cambridge to "Take Back the Streets for
Horns, Bikes, and Feet". Led by Mayors Curtatone & Simmons,
and by Car Talk's Tom & Ray Magliozzi (in a pedicab!),
the parade will start in Davis Square and culminate with
performances by several HONK! bands at Harvard Square's
annual Oktoberfest celebration. |
| The
bands will return to Davis Square for a public concert
at the Dilboy VFW Hall, 371 Summer Street, Somerville
at 8pm Sunday evening. |
| HONK!
is a huge street spectacle, almost entirely free and open
to the public. HONK! bands are joyous community bands
who blend traditions of second line and klezmer, funk
and bollywood, mardi gras and carnival. These bands honk
their horns, beat their drums, and wave their flags in
the streets to reclaim public space for the purpose of
revelry. All over the world they provide the people’s
soundtrack for community gardens, public school yards,
puppet shows, pride parades, worker rallies, peace marches,
and neighborhood fundraisers. |
| HONK!
bands attending the festival represent nearly every region
of the United States, as well as some parts of Canada
and Europe. The Festival will include Titubanda,
the 35-piece activist street band from Rome, Italy; the
return of the MarchFourth Marching Band
from Portland, Oregon; the Hungry March Band
from Brooklyn; the Brass Liberation Orchestra
from San Francisco; as well as Rude Mechanical
Orchestra (Brooklyn); Environmental Encroachment
(Chicago); the Yellow Hat Band (Seattle,
WA); What Cheer? Brigade (Providence,
RI); the TriBattery Pops (Tribeca/Battery
Park); Himalayas (New York City); Chaotic
Insurrection Ensemble (Montreal); Emperor
Norton’s Stationary Marching Band (Somerville);
The Scene of the Crime Rovers (Durham,
NC); Leftist Marching Band (Portsmouth,
NH); Seed and Feed Marching Abominable
(Atlanta, GA); District Circus Marching Band (Washington,
D.C.); Bread and Puppet Circus Band (Glover,
VT); and the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure
Society Brass Band (Somerville). |
| This
unique gathering of brass bands will bring the music and
dance of social justice to the streets of Somerville and
Cambridge for the following events of the HONK!
Festival: |
|
1.
HONK! Conference: “Politics and Festival”
October 10, Friday, 12 noon to 6 pm |
|
(part
of HONK!
U. @ Tufts) |
| Granoff
Music Center, 20 Talbot Avenue, Tufts University |
| Free
Admission |
| Description:
Tufts University will host the educational and entertaining
HONK! Symposia on “Politics, Festival and
the Activist Musician” as part of a larger
HONK! education and outreach effort of workshops and demonstrations
to encourage community honking. As such, the symposium
is free and open to the public and anyone interested in
forming a HONK! band in his or her own neighborhood is
encouraged to attend. The symposia include: |
- Noon
– 2 pm: Honk Band Workshop 1: "Honk
Praxis: Band Organization and Dynamics" –
Theresa Westerdahl (Hungry March Band) & Kevin
Leppmann (Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society
Brass Band), coordinators, with members of participating
honk bands (Fisher rehearsal room)
|
-
2 pm – 4 pm: Honk Band Workshop 2: "The
Politics of Honk: Addressing Diversity and Community"
– John Bell (Second Line Social Aid
and Pleasure Society Brass Band), Jamie Spector (Brass
Liberation Orchestra), & Daniel Lang (Rude Mechanical
Orchestra), coordinators, with members of participating
honk bands (Fisher rehearsal room)
|
- 4
pm – 6 pm: Symposium on "Politics, Festival,
and the Activist Musician" with panelists NYC trumpeter
& composer Frank London (www.franklondon.com),
composer & multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio (www.amydenio.com),
Tufts Professor David Guss, and moderated by music
historian Reebee Garofalo (Distler Hall)
|
2.
All-Day Outdoor Music Festival: HONK!
in Davis Square, October 11, Saturday, 11:30 to 9 pm |
| Davis
Square, Somerville |
| Free
Admission |
| Description:
HONK! will occupy Davis Square for an entire day of street
band festivities, including: |
- 11:30
a.m. – 12 noon: Opening Ceremonies in Seven
Hills Park, with Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz and other
dignitaries, a performance of the What Is Honk? cantastoria,
and the ritual first honk of the festival.
|
- 12
noon – 9 p.m.: All of the HONK! bands will disperse
to six different locations around the square, playing
two 1-hour sets each. Spectators may also encounter
spontaneous parades in the square.
|
3.
HONK! Parade: Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes,
and Feet, October 12, Sunday, 12 noon to 2 pm |
| From
Davis Square to Harvard Square |
| Description:
The “Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet!”
street parade will join local community groups and performers
with HONK! brass bands in a massive procession beginning
at Sacco’s Bowl Haven on Day Street, proceeding
down Elm Street to Beech Street, and then processing down
Massachusetts Avenue to Harvard Square. The parade will
include all 25 brass bands and an equal number of community
organizations including Cambridge Green Streets
Initiative, the Open Air Circus,
Bikes Not Bombs, the Boston Derby
Dames, Veterans For Peace, Livable
Streets Alliance, the Puppeteers Cooperative,
and Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater.
The HONK! parade invites any community group interested
in participating to contact parade organizer John Bell
(parade@honkfest.org). |
4.
HONK! at Oktoberfest: October 12, Sunday, 2 pm
to 6 pm |
| Harvard
Square |
| Description:
The Harvard Square Business Association’s Oktoberfest
will feature four different HONK! bands in performance
on different stages in Harvard Square. See harvardsquare.com
for details. http://harvardsquare.com |
|
5.
HONK! at the Dilboy: October 12, Sunday, 8 pm–
11 pm |
| Dilboy
VFW Hall, 371 Summer Street, Somerville |
| Admission:
Donation |
| Description:
The HONK! Festival will close with an open concert
and jam session at the George Dilboy Hall VFW Post featuring
over a dozen HONK! bands, special section jams, and mash-ups
of various HONK! groups. |
| 6.
Brass Bands Conquer The World: October 13, Monday,
5 pm – Midnight |
| Providence,
RI |
| Admission:
$10 |
| Description:
Providence
RI Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism will proudly
host six activist street bands from around the world.
The event will begin in Kennedy Plaza at 5 pm, then march
down Washington Street to AS220, at 115 Empire Street
in Providence, where doors will open at 6:30. Tickets
cost $10. Some of the bands will also appear at the weekly
Open Mike at the Black Repertory Theater, 276 Westminster
Street, Providence, starting at 9 pm. |
| |
BACKGROUND
OF THE HONK! FESTIVAL |
| HONK! puts forth that music and dance are not for individuals to consume in isolation, but for everyone to create and enjoy together. All year HONK! bands put themselves and their music out on the streets, all over the world, for the purpose of uniting communities in joyful resistance to modern-day fatalism and oppression. On Columbus Day weekend, the HONK! movement converges on Davis Square in Somerville to celebrate creative diversity and solidarity, to benefit from the experiences and knowledge of fellow musicians and activists, and to create a giant street spectacle for everyone to enjoy. |
| An
ad-hoc group of musicians, teachers, organizers, artists,
and community leaders have joined forces with the local
"raucous, stomp your feet and belt out the choruses" street
band, the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society,
to bring HONK! to the Boston area on a shoestring budget.
Support has also come from the Davis Square Resident and
Business Initiative (DARBI), the Somerville Arts Council,
the Cambridge Arts Council, RESIST, and the Puffin Foundation
for the Arts. |
| The
vast majority of support for HONK! has come in small contributions
and in-kind donations. For the duration of the Festival,
more than 300 musicians will be housed by gracious neighbors
and friends of HONK!. Many Davis Square restaurants will
generously provide food for the performers for the weekend.
The bands are inspired to travel great distances at great
personal expense to celebrate the HONK! movement together
in Davis Square. |
| Continuing
updates and the schedule of the HONK! Festival can be
found at www.honkfest.org. |
END
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