HONK! Festival: 20th Annual Festival of Activist Street Bands -- SAVE THESE DATES: October 9-12, 2025

HONK! FESTIVAL 2025. TWENTIETH ANNUAL
Festival of Activist Street Bands
SAVE THE DATES
October 9-12, 2025
(rain or shine)

based in Davis Square, Somerville
and Harvard Square, Cambridge
FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

“….Get yourself a trombone, a tuba, and a sax.
Solves most problems.”
(Rachel Maddow Show’s “Shorts”,
“Tubas to the rescue!”, youtube.com/shorts/FyA0R_2VZHs)

By early September, the 20th annual HONK! Festival 2025 implementation plans will be proceeding at a very brisk clip. A pace that is warranted, given the current signs of these troubling times. Organizing in preparation for a critical mass of street musicians, many hailing from all over the U.S., to congregate here, to play rousing relentless music, while also addressing head-on crucial issues that are now always at the forefront.

HONK! Festival 2025 will be held from October 9-12, with HONK! outdoor band concerts held rain or shine throughout Somerville and its adjacent cities during that Thursday thru Sunday. Which includes the vast “Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet" Parade that will wend its way from Davis Square to Harvard Square on that Sunday to join in Harvard Square’s 46th annual Oktoberfest. In addition, plans are in the works to host a HONK! Conference on that Thursday, held during the day at Tufts University, which will include sharing strategies on such pertinent topics as innovative performance practices and the different approaches for increasing solidarity, reclaiming public space, communicating effectively, and implementing safeguards for security.

Initiated in Somerville back in 2006, HONK! is now a world-wide movement, inspired by a commitment to instigate positive social change through music, and embodied in the powerful upbeat sounds generated by activist street bands. Musicians travel from near and far to participate annually in Somerville's HONK!, which has spawned countless bands and upwards of 20 kindred festivals around the world over the past 20 years. As global crises intensify, along with the shared feeling of urgency for a rapid response, HONK! brings welcome joy, power, beauty, and solidarity to our streets. Visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HONK! for a better take on the scope of this movement.

The Somerville-based HONK! organizing committee is made up of many local social and political activists, including members of HONK!’s founding and host band, the Good Trouble Brass Band (fka The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band). Updates for this year’s 20th annual HONK! will be posted on the following sites: honkfest.org, instagram.com/honkfest/, https://x.com/honkfest, and facebook.com/honkfestival.

At this early stage of this year’s organizing process, the HONK! Festival committee would like to give special thanks to the City of Somerville, the Somerville Arts Council, Davis Square businesses and Harvard Square Business Association for their continued support.

Basic listings information:
HONK! Festival
20th Annual Festival of Activist Street Bands.
October 9-12, 2025
Held throughout Somerville, Cambridge, and adjacent neighborhoods.
Outdoors rain or shine.
Free and open to all; if interested in volunteering, contact volunteer@honkfest.org.
For further information:
honkfest.org, honkfest.org/contact/, info@honkfest.org, 781-285-8639.