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Last year, Justin Rood and Chris Naoum teamed up to stage a musical march by the people, for the people through the U Street corridor. A tribute to D.C.’s music history, the anything-goes affair was bookended by live acts from as close as Congress Heights and as far away as Mali. Rood and Naoum dubbed it the Funk Parade.
The celebration’s 2015 edition boasts more pre- and post-parade parties, plus the OK from the mayor to shut down U Street proper rather than march down the quieter, residential blocks of V Street NW as in last year’s festivities.
But size and funkiness often evolve in inverse proportions—and in an era when the term has been thoroughly sterilized by Mark Ronson’s “Uptown” ear candy, some trappings of the Funk Parade might not be as funky as they seem. Don’t believe me? Just watch.
