The Key of Rest: HONK!’s Hospitality Activism
Mike*Antares
By fusing brass band culture and activism, and engaging the public through the medium of street band performance, HONK! festivals invite musical exploration, participation, and celebration to communities around the world. Musicians travel at personal expense and, in return for the free public performances they offer, they receive food, drink, and shelter from local volunteer hosts. This chapter, at the intersection of ethnomusicology and hospitality anthropology, describes the efforts behind and experience of hosting hundreds of visiting community street band musicians in the communities of various HONK!s. Drawing upon interviews with residents in six cities across three countries, and qualitative and quantitative data, it introduces the concept of hospitality activism as a means to explain why local residents choose to open their homes to musicians for free in an increasingly commodified hospitality economy.
Mike*Antares lives and works in Seattle, Washington. He has participated as a principal organizer of both HONK!TX (2011–2014) and HONK! Fest West (2011–2012, 2015–2017). Alumnus of 3 HONK! bands, he currently plays megaphone with Chaotic Noise Marching Corps.
Mike*Antares
By fusing brass band culture and activism, and engaging the public through the medium of street band performance, HONK! festivals invite musical exploration, participation, and celebration to communities around the world. Musicians travel at personal expense and, in return for the free public performances they offer, they receive food, drink, and shelter from local volunteer hosts. This chapter, at the intersection of ethnomusicology and hospitality anthropology, describes the efforts behind and experience of hosting hundreds of visiting community street band musicians in the communities of various HONK!s. Drawing upon interviews with residents in six cities across three countries, and qualitative and quantitative data, it introduces the concept of hospitality activism as a means to explain why local residents choose to open their homes to musicians for free in an increasingly commodified hospitality economy.
Mike*Antares lives and works in Seattle, Washington. He has participated as a principal organizer of both HONK!TX (2011–2014) and HONK! Fest West (2011–2012, 2015–2017). Alumnus of 3 HONK! bands, he currently plays megaphone with Chaotic Noise Marching Corps.
