A HONKing Good Time!

Honk! If you love Seattle!! honk honk

Seattle, in addition to being the “Emerald City,” is also the Land of Festivals. Every little neighborhood, enclave and organization within the city limits throws at least one soirree during the year. As you approach Seattle Summer, which starts just after Fourth of July regardless of what the almanac says, you cannot throw a rock without hitting a festival! And possibly a demonstration or half-a-dozen signature gatherers, but I digress.

HONK Fest West is one of our absolute favorites. If you haven’t heard of it, think big drumline/brass band/street band festival. It’s crazy, fun and definitely alternative. In short, HONK is a great example of what we love about our city.

This is probably what you expected when I said “drumline”. This is good.

But HONK Fest is so much more than just drummers. It’s a quintessential Seattle, let your freak flag fly, festival. You’re never too old, too crazy, too tubby, too skinny, too gay, too straight, too corporate, too street, too anything to join the band, to color your hair, to wear a tutu, to dance to the beat, to pour joy into the streets and just have fun for the sake of having f-u-n. Festival folks are just as likely to be captains of industry as baristas, freelancers or artists. Seattle loves its’ freaky-deaky artiness. I say, bring it.

Grab your tutu and head out in the crowd.

Be careful, though, or you might find yourself blending in with our crosswalks! Yes, like the colors of our hair, our ink, our boots – we’ve got the rainbow.

What else I love about event-going Seattle? Pint sized hearing protection so the tots can go to concerts, festivals and the loudest football & futbol contests in the nation.

And when the sprinkle starts, everyone acts like they don’t feel a thing until, as if on cue, stowaway raincoats magically appear.

The attending pups didn’t seem to care about the rain! Not sure if they got hearing protection too, but they always give our festivals a friendly, furry edge.

We look forward to enjoying many another HONK Fest, but I really need to work on my wardrobe…

Ready to experience your own HONK Fest West? Here’s 2 1/2 minutes of HONK joy highlights. In order in the video: the award winning Garfield High School Drumline, Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder Drumline, Black Sheep Ensemble from Atlanta, VamoLá and Sound Wave (the Seattle Sounders soccer team band),

If you like what you see, hopefully you’ll take in your own HONK Fest (East or West) and feel the beat! We’ll meet you there!