For the 17th year, Somerville and Cambridge streets from Davis Square to Harvard Square were taken over by the bright, percussive crowds for the final day of the 2022 HONK! Fest on Sunday.
“Every year it’s this same vibe, same positive energy,” said Bob Francois, who played with the Haitian street band Rara Bel Poze during Sunday’s parade. “We love to get the opportunity to participate in something with so much diversity and to expose our cultural tradition to everybody that’s here.”
The HONK! Festival lasts from Friday to Sunday, inviting brass bands from all across the country and providing a platform to local organizations, artists and activists. Since its start in 2006, the festival’s site boasts, the celebration has spread as far as Brazil and Australia.
Signs held high in Sunday’s parade ran the gambit of major national and local issues, from “Affordable Housing for All” to “Climate Justice Now” to “Yes on 4.”
“It’s only weeks away from the election, and we know that many folks won’t know about this Question 4,” said Roxana Rivera, the executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU, referencing the ballot question challenging undocumented immigrants’ ability to obtain driver’s licenses. “We want to make sure it’s given as much visibility as possible, given the short timeline.”
The festival, Rivera said, is a good forum to give issues like this one that type of visibility.
Many, largely organized by Vida Urbana, also used the parade to advocate for rent control and highlight skyrocketing housing costs across Massachusetts.
Wearing giant heads, carrying paper swords and shields and hoisting giant banners, housing advocate marchers pointed to tenants’ rights information and housing resources.
Nearly half of all renters face unaffordable housing cost burdens in Massachusetts, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the group said in a press release.
The messaging campaigns and brass bands blasting familiar rhythms blended seamlessly with performers on stilts, cultural groups, hula hoopers, bikers and more in the surprisingly warm, high-energy Sunday afternoon.
“My favorite part about HONK! is being incredibly exhausted,” one emcee yelled into a mic, “and finding the motivation to come back again.”
