26 – 28 Sep 2025
Various locations in Bradford
HONK!
The Peace Artistes
A weekend of live music with Bradford's beloved street band
A three-day street musical extravaganza that featured community bands from around the UK and beyond.
A Bradford 2025 Artist-Led Award project.
About this project
HONK! Bradford brought 15 street bands from the UK, Spain, Germany, France and the US to play across the district – in community centres, parks, high streets and the city centre.
300+ musicians played with a passion that’s as infectious as it is inspiring, blending genres from bhangra to Balkan, jazz to hip hop.
Organised by Bradford’s very own street band – The Peace Artistes – HONK! celebrated cultural diversity with school and community involvement and a brand new pick-up band for local musicians. It was a weekend of cultural celebration, echoing the global movement of HONK!, uniting communities through music and activism.
Programme
- 7-9pm: Let the Music Loose 15 bands played in 15 community centres – from Keighley to Queensbury, Ilkley to Windhill.
Saturday 27th September
- 11-1pm: Sound of the Streets. 16 bands from across the world played in public spaces across the district.
- 2-4pm: Bring it to the City. The biggest busk Bradford had ever seen! Bands from the UK, Australia and America, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands played across the city centre.
- 4-6.30pm: The Big HONK! A showdown of the International bands in Centenary Square, with the HONK! Band, the Peace Artistes, Punjabi Roots, Bradford Voices and special guest SilverFinger Singh.
- 8-11.30pm: Bandslam at the Bradford Hotel. 300+ musicians, 17 fantastic streetbands, plus a few special guests! A totally unique one-off evening where every band played a few of their favourite tunes, from Balkan to bhangra, secondline to ska, Latin to legendary pop classics. Genres were mashed up with a passion that’s as infectious as it is inspiring.
Sunday 28th September
There were workshops for all participants, with musical genres including bhangra, samba and Balkan; a history of streetband activism; playing for peace, choreography and costume.
Artist-Led Project Awards
This project was supported by the Bradford 2025 Artist-led Project Awards programme.
Find out more about this programme and the projects that we supported below.
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