HonkTx...

It finally happen. I got to go to HonkTx, a free festival of community street bands held in Austin, Tx and other places across the country. For years this festival fell on a weekend I was working and when we did manage to schedule a trip Covid canceled it in 2020. This year we loaded up the big grandkids, Warren and Coraline, camped at near by McKinney Falls State Park and made the Saturday portion of the festival held at Muller Lake Park. I copied this from the Honk Festival of Activist Street Bands Web site:

Throughout the country and across the globe, a new type of street band movement is emerging — outrageous and inclusive, brass and brash, percussive and persuasive — reclaiming public space with a sound that is in your face and out of this world. Called everything from “avant-oompah!” to a “brassroots revolution,” these bands draw inspiration from sources as diverse as Klezmer, Balkan and Romani music, Brazilian Samba, Afrobeat and Highlife, Punk, Funk, and Hip Hop, as well as the New Orleans second line tradition, and deliver it with all the passion and spirit of Mardi Gras and Carnival.

This is the Moon Tower Brass Band. 

Der Austiner Klezmer Bund 

Blocomotion

Dead Capital Band

Austin Samba

Providence Drum Troupe

Burn Out Brass Band

I made lots of tuba player pictures. Here's some of the Burn Out Brass Band members. 

Big Blitz. I follow another dual sax and drum group called Moon Hooch and saw them in New Orleans once. Apparently this instrumentation is a thing and I like it. 

Big Blitz and The Meow Now Brass Band jammed. Two drummers, three bari saxes and tuba, what is not to like here. 

The Minor Mishap Marching Band. 

These bands are all great and range from proffesional musicians to community groups like Blocomotion that offer horns and lessons to anyone who wants to be a member. 

This festival was a band geeks paradise. Band people are usually a little different and it's nice to know there are inclusive places for them to play like they want, dress like they want and embrace the lifestyle they want. I'm glad I took my grandkids to see this because there are so many things here that are in my heart about music and life it was a good way to show it all in action rather than try to explain myself. 

Warren allowed he had fun on the trip, camping, swimming and at the festival but Coraline said, "it was the most fun I've ever had."