Newly elected Wollongong councillor Cath Blakey helped officially launch the Honk! Oz Street Music Festival in the Crown Street Mall on Friday.
Dozens of musicians came together to put on a lunchtime show as a taster for the three day free music festival from January 11 to 13.
“It’s all about community participation,” Ms Blakey said, encouraging everyone who’s ever touched a musical instrument to get involved.
Workshop sessions are a big part of the event, catering for musicians of all ages and abilities to enable them to coordinate their sound in a group.
Read More: Illawarra Folk Festival program now released
Fifteen alternative community bands – some from interstate and international – are so far on the lineup for the fringe event of the Illawarra Folk Festival. Performances will be found in and around the Crown Street Mall, Arts Precinct and Town Hall.
Participating bands borrow a fusion of repertoire from a diverse set of music traditions — New Orleans Second Line, Klezmer, Balkan Brass Bands, Brazilian Samba, funk and popular music.
It has been modelled on similar events held the US and South America and named after the “Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands” movement.
Honk! Oz was brought to life in 2014 to celebrate public spaces while blurring the lines between audience members and participants.