HONK! Fest West is this weekend. Tell me you'll be there.

For the past six months, I've been organizing a little thing called HONK! Fest West. Only it's not so little anymore.

It's huge. Sprawling three days and four locations.

It's open. Almost every performance in the street and every single one all-ages.

It's raucous. Over 20 bands--that's over 250 musicians--will play over 19 hours of scheduled music (see:1, 2). God knows what they'll be doing when we're not looking.

It's free. We are accepting donations, but all money raised goes to either the bands or festival activities. I am a volunteer. Everyone involved with HONK! is a volunteer. You should be a volunteer!

But that doesn't really get to the nut of HONK! Fest West. Although I'd be foolish to believe there's only one.

Honk! Fest West, so sayeth the thing, "is a street fair dedicated to bringing marching bands, samba lines, horn players, drum corps, and every manner of rhythmic and melodic noisemaker we could find right to the Seattle streets."

Which is to say HONK! is loud, energetic, stylistically bold, and always on the move. Samba lines, 2nd line New Orleans jazz, drum corps, Balkan folk, and anything and everything in between.

That was nut the one.

Nut the two is our community focus. HONK! events use music to remove the line between professional and novice, audience and performers. The honkers' ultimate goal is to have fun, to relish the art of making fun as a form of individual and collective transcendence, and to encourage others to see and do the same.

We love that idea. So this year we made some changes to support that vision. In 2010, HONK! is officially in the streets and all-ages!

(And as a partner with the City of Seattle and The Vera Project, we think it makes a lot of sense.)

FRIDAY: We'll be in Fremont (pic) on N. 35th St at Phinney Ave. N. from 5-10pm.

SATURDAY: HONK hits twice! From 10am-4pm, we'll be in the Central Area (pic), headquartered in historic Washington Hall. From 6-10pm, we join our good friends the Art Attack down in Georgetown (pic).

SUNDAY: We are stoked to be sharing the streets with the West Seattle Farmers' Market. From Noon-5pm, marching bands will have the run of West Seattle. You'll probably notice a difference.

That's HONK!

It's this weekend. Tell me you'll be there.