The ladies of Batala Washington perform in the 2015 Funk Parade (Photo by Sriram Gopal).
How could Funk Parade co-founders Chris Naoum and Justin Rood have known what they were getting into when they launched the annual event in 2014? The street festival keeps getting bigger and bigger, with an estimated 70,000 descending onto U Street NW and its surrounding neighborhoods in 2016.
This year’s iteration takes place on Saturday, and Rood believes they’ll outdo even last year’s turnout. The question becomes whether the community can accommodate an event that has grown exponentially.
“We now have over 200 D.C. businesses, arts organizations, and community groups involved in planning and producing Funk Parade,” says Rood. “It’s a real struggle for a community-based, all-volunteer event to find the hands and money to survive its good fortune.”
The day is structured similarly to previous years. The daytime fair runs from noon to 7 p.m. with eight outdoor stages. The actual parade takes place at 3 p.m., running from The Howard Theatre to The Lincoln Theatre with The Brides of Funkenstein serving as Grand Marshals. Over 20 venues will then open their doors for free music from 7 to 10 p.m. In total, more than 100 acts will perform over the course of the day and into the evening.
While the full schedule and roster is available on the event’s Facebook page, the organizers went a step further to help keep things orderly for attendees this year. A volunteer creative team at Deloitte Digital developed an app that is available for iOS and Android. It provides a full schedule of events, a street map, information on performers, and a playlist with over 50 acts that are performing at the festival.
“It was a huge undertaking, and I think a lot of people are going to be grateful for their effort,” Rood says of Deloitte Digital’s final product. “I don’t think anybody really understands everything that’s going on. There is simply no way to know what’s happening without it.”
The Sun Ra Arkestra headlines the music festival portion of this year’s Funk Parade (Photo courtesy of the artist).
The use of technology to improve the festival-going experience ties in nicely with this year’s theme, “#FutureFunk.” Co-founder Naoum recalls three events that led to the concept: 1) The P-Funk Mothership landing at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, 2) the Sun Ra Arkestra headlining the Funk Parade’s festival portion, and 3) the organizer’s belief that music and art will give rise to a more inclusive future society.
“When technology and art come together in new and meaningful ways the results can be mind blowing,” Naoum says. “Future Funk for us meant asking about how those two words can make sense in a festival like Funk Parade.”
To that end, Funk Parade has invited a number of area visual artists to create a series of projection installations. The Future Funk Laboratory will showcase the latest projects from the District’s art, tech, and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality communities. The Intergalactic Inter-generation Station is a family-friendly stage that aims to introduce music and art to the little ones.
If Funk Parade shows us anything it shows us we’re a diverse city, and creative,” says Rood. “We bring a lot of different resources and experience together, and we can use them to make amazing things happen.”
Naoum agrees with that sentiment, and further believes those attributes will lead to positive change in the District.
“The more we can all understand and acknowledge the negative impacts of a changing community and what it means for people, art, and culture then the more we can do to prevent future mistakes and maybe even right some that have previously been made.”
The 2017 Funk Parade & Festival takes place from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, May 6. Visit the festival website, Facebook page, or download the app for full details.
