For the first time in our eight years as Kansas City's only queer street parade band, Sass-a-Brass is going on tour to the legendary HONK! Fest in Somerville, Massachusetts from October 8–11!

Read more about the trip below, and mark your calendars for our EPIC fundraising shows coming up:

Monday, August 17th at the Brick for Rural Grit Happy Hour 6-9pm - Sass showcase and weekly bluegrass jam. Bring your axe and join the fun.

Sunday, September 27th at the NEW Pendleton Heights Pocket Park (Lexington Ave, across from PH Coffee) - Afternoon block party!

Saturday, October 3rd at Oddly Correct Coffee on Troost Ave. block party, special merch release and tour kickoff parade ~ 5:30-8:30pm

HONK! Fest is a huge gathering of cross-continental activist street bands inspired by musical traditions including New Orleans second line, samba, funk, hip hop and beyond. All HONK bands play at street level, usually for free, and invite their communities to join in on the fun. Like us, the other bands at HONK are thoroughly engaged with their local communities, often playing at protests and working alongside local grassroots organizations toward social and environmental justice.

Sass-a-Brass started as a direct result of our founder's trip to HONK fest in 2016. This festival means a lot to us because it inspired the first version of Sass-a-Brass to come together and lead the first Pride parade in Lawrence, KS in 2018. We've grown a LOT since then, performing up to 12 parades every summer, founding and leading People's Pride KC, and hosting open Mardi Gras rehearsals and parades in the winter. Mostly our music is a mix of New Orleans Mardi Gras and protest anthems, but this fall we will debut several special songs from the Kansas City jazz tradition to share at HONK! Fest.

We are honored and excited to showcase our music, develop our unique sound, and meet other bands like us for the first time, but the stark reality of tour is that it costs a lot to take 13 musicians to Massachusetts and back. We can't pull this off without direct support from you--our wonderful and diverse community in KC and beyond!

Our initial goal of $2400 is for the cost of renting two vans plus the necessary insurance and gas to get us and a bunch of instruments to and from Massachusetts. Our stretch goal of $7,695 ensures that we can cover food for all band members, as well as plane tickets for a couple of members who can't travel in the van or need to cut the trip short. It will also cover any of our lodging needs.

If you’ve ever come out to see us play or danced with us in the street, ever sung along to "All You Fascists Bound to Lose," or generally supported what we’re doing, this is your chance to help us take Sass-a-Brass further than we've ever gone before.

Donate if you can, share if you can't, and help us bring our queer, activist street band to Boston this fall!

Thanks for supporting local music.

Much love,

Your Sassies

(Jon, Adrienne, Molly, Rosie, Jennifer, Kate, Kimberly, Rae, Augustus, Cathy, Rach, Nicole, and Shelly)