The 16th Annual HONK NYC! Festival returns Oct. 11-19 to celebrate the city’s resilience from COVID-19 with music, dance and art that highlight New York City culture.
HONK NYC! produces a week-long annual festival each October, partners with local business improvement districts and cultural institutions on immersive concerts, events, and activations that reclaim, reuse, and redefine public space, celebrating the power and vitality of the street performance. Funded in part by the NYC Department of Transportation, Staten Island Arts, and Maker Park Radio, the nine-day festival makes its way through Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island bringing live street bands, New York City-based artists, and interactive experiences that encourage audience members to become honorary band members of the festivities.
This year, HONK eagerly presents the New York City premiere of Banda Rim Ram Bum, from Santiago, Chile, fusing indigenous Andean sounds of Tinku and Diablada with cumbia, Afro-Latin rhythms, carnaval, and salsa in a celebration of Latine culture. Another band making their New York City premiere is the Young Fellaz Brass Band, from New Orleans, Louisiana, with their authentic New Orleans Second Line experience. In addition to these out-of-town bands, HONK NYC! 2022 will present NYC-based artists whose work focuses on preserving, interpreting, and reimagining street music traditions from BIPOC diasporic cultural expressions.
A glance at the festival events:
Tuesday, Oct. 11 – Park Slope
6 p.m. to Midnight – Opening at Barbès with Young Fellaz Brass Band and Slavic Soul Party, NYC’s leading Balkan Funk Brass Band
Wednesday, Oct 12 – Prospect Heights
4 p.m. – 7 p.m. Happy Hour at Underhill Open Streets with Banda Rim Ram Bum and Young Fellaz Brass Band
Thursday, Oct. 13 – Harlem
5 p.m. -8:30 p.m. Marcus Meets Malcolm with Banda Rim Bam Bum, Young Fellaz Brass Band, and Elijah J. Thomas’ Hellfighters 2
Friday, Oct. 14 – Staten Island
6 p.m. – 10 p.m. Maker Park Radio show featuring Spanglish Fly, the premiere band of the Latin Bugalú revival
Saturday, Oct. 15 – East Village / Bushwick
12 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Parades and events in the East Village at Avenue B Open Streets, FAB Open Streets, and several community gardens with Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars (“The mystical high priest of New Wave Avant-Klez jazz”), COBU (all-women Japanese Taiko drumming), musician & composer Melvin Gibbs, and others.
8 p.m. – HONK NYC! 9th Annual Brasstastic Blowout at Rubulad featuring Funkrust Brass Band, a 20- piece post-apocalyptic disco-punk brass band playing all original music and Dancing Divas Brass Band, a new queer-led ensemble commissioned by HONK NYC!
Sunday, Oct. 16 – Park Slope
10 p.m. – HONK NYC! returns to Barbés with the Brass Queens, an all-women 8-piece brass band inspired by the musical traditions of New Orleans
Tuesday, Oct. 18 – Jackson Heights
2 p.m. – 4 p.m. – Parade performances at the 34th Ave Open Streets with Banda Rim Bam Bum and Young Fellaz Brass Band
Wednesday, Oct. 19 – Sunset Park
7 p.m. – Closing night jam party at JAMbalaya, with Young Fellaz Brass Band
For more information and updates, HONK NYC’s website is www.honknyc.com
