HONK! Fest West returns to Seattle for its fourth year this weekend. The traveling festival will visit Georgetown on Friday; Gas Works Park on Saturday, May 14; and Seattle Center on Sunday.
What is Honk! Fest West? Well, it’s not a gaggle of geese or a google of gooses. Nor is it a festival designed to celebrate my Roman nose. It’s about horns & percussion & dancing. To quote the Honk! Fest organizers themselves:
HONK! Fest West is a free, three-day, community-supported music festival devoted to marching bands, drum corps, samba lines, and anything acoustic and mobile that makes a ruckus. We are also partial to street performers, dancers, and artistic appreciators.
This year, bands large and small (anywhere from 8 – 60 members) will come from all over the United States and Canada, ready with old ditties, new tunes, fighting songs, protest marches, funeral dirges, swinging gospel, Balkan folk, tin pan jazz, and everything in between.
The 2011 lineup includes:
- Artesian Rumble Arkestra
- Beat Crunchers
- Bolting Brassicas Marching Band
- Bucharest Drinking Team
- Environmental Encroachment
- Garfield High School Bulldog Drumline
- Young Fellaz Brass Band from New Orleans
- Tubaluba
And more, way way more. Check out the full lineup here. That’s Saturday at Gas Works Park noon to six.
Honk! Fest West is a free community event, though donations are accepted. Honk! Fest West is also a Vera Project, and is sponsored by a whole lot of folks, including Wallingford’s own Bottleworks and Seattle Tilth.
Also, the All Star HONK! Review takes place at Hale’s Palladium in Fremont Saturday night. Ticket information is available here.