This year marked the 3rd annual "Honk Fest West" festival of, well, kind of, marching bands. Sort of. Over two dozen "street marching bands" from around the U.S. and Canada converged on neighborhoods of Seattle and sometimes marched, but mostly just played. The event took place on April 9th to 11th in Seattle.

I could not attend but I've enjoyed watching some YouTube videos. A sampling follows - enjoy.

From the 2010 event:

• HD: Stanford University Marching Band (or part of it)
• Carnival Band
• Unknown band - nice trumpet though
• Titanium Sporkestra Marching Band
• Unknown band - Balkan Brass style music (Update: This is the Hungry March Band)
  
• March 4th Marching Band (from Oregon)
• KOMO News4 raw video
• Environmental Encroachment Magic Circus Band
• Hungry March Band
• New Orleans style (unknown band)
  

From the 2009 event:

• HD: Percussionist jam session at Gas Works Park (this is very good)
• Minor Mishap Marching Band from Austin, TX

The above is only a tiny sample. More videos are available on YouTube if you search for "honk fest west" or "honk fest 2010" or "honk fest seattle". The other "honk fest" is "Honk Fest East" in Boston.

The same weekend, a staggering 800 people staged a "flash mob" dance in the streets of Seattle. This is quite amazing.

• Video here provided by the Seattle Times in HD.

And heck, here is last years Gas Works Park percussion jam section. This is fun.





Enjoy! ... Ed