BY KEELIN EVERLY-LANG for WEEKLY VOLCANO 9/19/25 |
HONK! Fest is back in Tacoma for the third year in a row on September 20, 2025. The afternoon will be filled with this participatory musical phenomenon that brings together local street bands and cultural groups with neighbors and community members for a free, joyful, and expressive festival.
The band lineup will tentatively run from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., but keep an eye on their social media and website for finalized times and the full run of show as the event gets closer. This year’s event will be based in the McKinley Hill neighborhood. Music will be played in streets and alleys, concentrated in four performance areas between East Division Lane and East Harrison Street on East McKinley Avenue.
HONK! is hosted by the Tacomarama Community Street Band, whose members volunteer to organize the event. Other bands hail from all around the Pacific Northwest. This year’s artists so far include Agents of Vibration, Anti-Fascist Marching Band, Artesian Rumble Arkestra, Assigned Gay At Band (AGAB), Bad Weather Brass, Ballard Brass, Baque Maré Maracatu, Better as Brass, Brass Cheeks, Chaotic Noise Marching Band, Couch Brass, Filthy Fem Corps, First Corps Brass Band–Bigfoot Brass Band, The Mighty PJAMRS, Neon Brass Party, The Onward Ensemble, Reign City Riot, Seattle Sounders Sound Wave, Sindikat Sina Roza, Steel Rain, Sticks and Bones, Unpresidented Brass Band, and VasHonK!
“The people in this community are just absolutely adorable and charming and delightful. The music is amazing,” Tacomarama band member and volunteer Stena Troyer told the Volcano. “It’s just so inclusive and queer and fun.”
Troyer has played alto saxophone in Tacomarama since 2022 and has loved being part of HONK! so much that she has attended other versions of the festival in Texas, Minneapolis, and Boston, as well as the more local Portland and Seattle ones. Troyer joined the band after meeting its leader, Irina Rasputnis, on a beach walk. “I was like, ‘Hey, do you want to pet this slimy moon snail?’ And she’s like, ‘No, but you can join my band,’” Troyer recalled. “One of us won…Well, really, both of us won because it’s just been so fun!”
Rasputnis also organizes Tacoma Porchfest in addition to HONK! Fest and Tacomarama, work for which she received a Tacoma Arts Award this year. In that recognition she was described as a “grassroots cultural organizer and radical joy cultivator.” Radical joy is also a theme in other versions of HONK! Fest around the country and the world.
The first version of the event began in 2006 as the Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands in Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts, according to a 2014 article from WBUR. The Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band invited other activism-minded street bands to join them from around the country, and they came. The following years saw the addition of a parade and more bands, then the event began to pop up in other cities.
Tacoma’s HONK! Fest centers activism in its own way—through the expression of community and joy. Troyer shared that many Tacoma HONK! fans have been active in the protest scene through their music or otherwise. “Having a joyful component to a protest really lightens the mood in a way that I think increases safety,” Troyer said. “We’re in your face about being joyful,” she added, describing the event as a “sonic occupation of places” and saying, “We’re here to create joy in community, and that is really important.”
This joy is kindled in the interactive aspect of the festival, where organizers encourage guests to “bring a funky noisemaker, meet your neighbors, local musicians, and maybe even join a band!” With this goal in mind, last year Tacoma HONK! added a participatory grand finale where each band chooses a crowd-pleasing favorite to invite fans to sing along. In classic karaoke style, the words are broadcast for the audience to join in. Troyer remembers this part of the night as particularly special.
A drizzle of rain didn’t stop participants from adding their voices during the first portion of the karaoke session, but as Tacomarama began to finish the night with a sing-along of It’s a Wonderful World, “The sun cracks through the clouds, people are holding each other and singing…it was just the most beautiful, sweet moment,” Troyer said.
Tacoma HONK! Fest still has some openings for volunteers. Those who want to add their efforts to the event can fill out the volunteer survey at tacomahonkfest.com/volunteer or find the link on their Facebook page.
