The Red Brigade Band from the first HONK! Oz festival in 2015. Photo: Mike Antares, Wollongong City Libraries -P51002.
Bands and musicians from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US will descend on Wollongong in January for the 10th Honk! Oz Street Music Festival.
HONK! Oz was founded by members of The Con Artists, a community band based at the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music.
The Illawarra Folk Club provided funding for the first festival in 2015 as a fringe event of the Illawarra Folk Festival. Twenty bands converged on the city centre to play music in the streets.
The event takes its name and inspiration from two American festivals – Somerville’s annual HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands and Seattle’s HONK! Fest West.
HONK! bands take their musical inspiration from mardi gras, carnivals and street music gatherings across Europe and South America.
They borrow a fusion of repertoire from a diverse set of music traditions – New Orleans second line, Klezmer, Balkan and Romani music, Brazilian samba and frevo, as well as jazz, funk and popular music.
All performances are free – bands perform on the streets to celebrate, to protest, with some playing for peace and some for activist causes, all for community spirit and just to have fun.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Wollongong hosting HONK!, Wollongong City Libraries has curated a photo exhibition, which runs until February 2025. The exhibition can be viewed at Wollongong Library, or online.
HONK! Oz is also known for wonderful and outlandish costumes, some of which will be displayed in Wollongong Library during the exhibition.
HONK! opens on Thursday, 9 January, from 5:30 pm at the Crown Street Mall night markets. It runs until 11 January at various locations in Wollongong and Port Kembla. Head to their website for more information.
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