by Kirby Lindsay, posted 13 June 2014
For seven years, HONK! Fest West has brought joy and street band culture to Seattle. For the last four, Fremont has been included as a stop on this moving celebration of live performance, brass & drum music.
In 2013, HONK Fest West joined their dozens of marching bands, drum corps, samba lines and anything acoustic that makes a ruckus to the Fremont Arts Council (FAC) and its annual raucous celebration of the solstice. This year they plan to do it all again!
“First year, we were in March,” explained David Stern, HONK! Fest West founder, “then April, May…” As the event evolved, they started eyeing the summer solstice for their largely outdoor, music festival. (“One of these years it’s going to be Honk Fest WET,” Stern observed.) When they thought about June, they thought about the FAC, the Solstice Parade, so they reached out to that organization – and its Parade Director extraordinaire Leslie Zenz – and “the conversation started to happen,” Stern explained.
Merging these two grassroots, volunteer-driven events provides the Parade with more high-quality, live bands, most of them already well-practiced at marching for miles. HONK! gets a bigger audience. “One of the big benefits,” Stern acknowledge about the partnership, “We have a built-in audience. Even with word of mouth, and posters, we can’t reach that many people.”
“Last year,” Stern reported about being at Gas Works Park – where the Parade ends – “it was a beautiful thing to see the arrival of the parade…”
‘A Good Representation’
However, HONK! Fest West has more going on than the 17 bands that give the Parade an energetic, high-spirited soundtrack – or the free, live concerts at Gas Works afterwards. “It’s my form of installation art,” explained Stern, who plays with Blue Thunder, the Seattle Seahawks Drum Line.
HONK! Fest West will kick-off June 19th, at Nectar Lounge, with a special benefit performance by eleven HONK bands, called ‘Revenge Of the Band Nerds III.’ “I think it’s a good way to see these bands showcase themselves,” Stern observed about this popular yet out-of-the-ordinary HONK event, “It’s a good representation.”
“I want people to know, HONK! Fest is free. It’s all ages. It’s the most fun they’ll have all summer. No other event has the energy,” Stern reported, these bands, “they suck you in!”
However, the ‘concert’ at Nectar – and another being held at Hale’s Palladium on Saturday, June 21st starting at 9p – do ask for a donation at the door, and are 21+ only. The show at Hale’s features most of the out-of-town bands only in Seattle for HONK! Fest West, while at Nectar a cross-section of all thirty HONK! Fest West bands will play.
“We do it right out back,” Stern reported, about the benefit at Nectar, where half of the bands play the parking lot behind the nightclub, “it kind of has got that Burning Man feel.” The rest of the bands, (the line-up can be seen on the Nectar Lounge or HONK! Fest websites,) will play the main stage although Stern warned, “even though there is a stage, they won’t use it much!”
Audience Participation Encouraged
HONK! Fest West is always family friendly, with fanciful costumery and audience participation encouraged. “HONK Fest West can stop people, and make them change the rhythm of their day,” Stern observed, “It’s the most fun you will have for free. It packs a lot of punch for the cost!”
HONK! festivals take place all over the United States, and the world. “In Serbia,” Stern reported, “the bands play so close together that it’s cacophonous.” Originally he wanted to use that model here, but the bands complained – they couldn’t hear what they were trying to play. “We can’t really follow the model of Boston,” where the festivals got started, he explained, as the bands can play in small town squares scattered all over town.
Instead, HONK! Fest West takes over Georgetown – this year on June 20th – and wanders the neighborhood from 6p – 10p with music and revelry. “One of the main things that keeps us coming back,” Stern explained about Georgetown, “is the support from the business district. The community support.”
For two years HONK! took place also in Ballard, and at Seattle Center, but both areas had problems of space. The first year in Fremont, in 2010, they also had space limitations and scheduling issues around other events. Still, the organizers continue to evolve and experiment and according to Stern, “the growing pains have been amazing.”
“Everywhere there are people who their idea of fun does not include 30 marching bands,” Stern acknowledged, but HONK does provide audiences access to a musical form not often seen. Still, Stern noted, “it is as much about what we are giving to the audience as it is about the culture of these bands, and giving them a chance to meet one another. The fact that it is for a whole weekend gives them a chance to really meet and get to know each other.”
Nearly all the HONK bands and musicians play as volunteers – a few work ‘full-time’ as professional musicians, but according to Stern there are also chefs, a computer programmer, doctor, lawyer, and baristas. “There is a diverse spread among the people who play,” he said, “but they all come together to play music.”
“Sometimes the bands get a little rambunctious,” Stern said, “but no real problems…” when they get loose – in Georgetown, Gas Works or at Nectar. “If it were the traditional car parade,” Stern said about being part of the FAC Solstice Parade, “we might have done it once, but to get the out-of-town bands be a part of the Solstice celebration…”
Come see HONK at the Solstice Parade, and at Gas Works. Also catch the ‘Revenge of the Band Nerds III’ at Nectar on June 19th, and the HONK! at Hale’s Palladium show on June 21st. Get out and enjoy HONK! Fest West while it is here!
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©2014 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.