‘Raises Your Spirits’: 46th Oktoberfest Features HONK! and Filipino American Festival

Thousands of people gathered in Harvard Square this Sunday despite rainy weather for the 46th Oktoberfest, with activist performances, food, and cultural celebration.

The festival coincided with the Fourth Annual Harvard Square Filipino American Festival and the 20th annual HONK! Parade.

HONK!, which originated in Somerville in 2006, is an annual three-day festival that brings activists and brass bands from across the U.S. to perform in Boston and Cambridge.

Denise A. Jillson, the Executive Director of the Harvard Square Business Association, who has been involved with the parade since 2006, said HONK! provides the opportunity for local activists to gather in Cambridge and “take the street with horns, bikes, and feet.”

“We like to think of it as a toe-tapping, knee-banging, hips-swinging, hand-clapping, heart-pumping, mind-blowing spectacle,” Jillson said.

More than 30 activist organizations participated in the parade and held up signs with pro-Palestine and immigrant rights messages like “Protect Our Neighbors.”

Jen Zawatskas, who has been volunteering with HONK! for more than 15 years, said she feels the parade’s mission is particularly resonant now.

“We’re at a time period right now where we need to come together and have our voices be heard, Zawatskas said. “The messages that HONK! brings are really particularly salient right now, and so I think it’s really important that we get out and exercise our right to have a voice.”

While international bands have performed at the event in the past, this year HONK! also allowed international performances via livestream at another part of the parade amid concerns from some bands around an increase in visa rejections and visitor detainments at airports.

Sarah Pilzer, who played the mellophone in the Brass Balagan street band, said she was glad that international bands who had previously taken part were still able to do so this year.

“They were still able to be part of HONK! for their 20th celebration through a live stream on a big jumbotron in Davis Square — it was awesome,” Pilzer said.

The festival brought spectators from across the country back to Cambridge. Scott Langley, a brass musician who has attended HONK! more than 15 times, drove three hours from New York to take part in the cause. Susan Fauman, who attended the festival for the first time with him, said the event provided a sense of belonging to spectators in the crowd.

“You feel like you’re in this sort of protective space of sound and activism and art and it raises your spirits,” said Fauman.

The Filipino American Festival, which took place in celebration of Filipino American History Month, featured food vendors with traditional Filipino cuisine including lumpia and lechon. The crowd was dotted with red, white, and yellow Filipino flags that lined the street from Oktoberfest to the cultural festival.

Jay Rocka, the founder of Kuya Jay’s Ube Kafe in Boston, took part in the event for the second year and sold ube lattes and Filipino food. According to Rocka, the event is one of the largest that the cafe has participated in, partly for its pairing with Oktoberfest.

“Cambridge is a very diverse community, and now you’re platforming different parts of your community all at the same time,” Rocka said.

A number of singers, street performers, political candidates, and activists joined in the festivities, including famous Filipino-American singer and songwriter Jay R, who has just under four million monthly listeners on Spotify.

“We have our Filipinos who came out despite the rain that wanted to support and watch me sing, which I thought was so cool,” Jay R said.

By combining Sunday’s three festivals, Fauman said that Cambridge cultivated a fun environment for spectators to engage in different aspects of the city.

“I love that the city of Cambridge has brought together an Oktoberfest event focused on commercialism and drinking beer and all that with something that contains the spirit of activism and community,” Langley said.

“To have all that in one place on one day is a really beautiful blend for me of all the traditions and cultures that exist,” Fauman added.