Ladyfest: a riot grrrl interview
What is Ladyfest? What kind of people get involved?
Ladyfest is a weekend-long festival of kick-ass bands, workshops, art and general feminist fun! All sorts of people are involved - we've got classically trained cellists, punky riot grrls, 60's-inspired clothes designers, gender studies academics, super-cool DJs, zinesters, eco-chicks and a mad puppeteer. Plus a few normal people.
Do you have any idea why the first Ladyfest might have been in America?
Good question! Maybe because the US is all about extremes - they've got a fair few crazy crazy people but there's also a big alternative, left-wing thing kicking back against all that racism, sexism and homophobia. Mix that with a healthy dose of ant-establishment, anti-capitalism and there's a big part of the 90's riot grrl scene, which inevitably led to Ladyfest. Having said that, Ladyfests have spread like wildfire across the globe so maybe it was just luck that the americans thought of it first...
Do you think Ladyfests have the same vibes as a usual male-dominated festival?
No way, Ladyfests are a lot friendlier. The whole point of the festival is to bring people together in a relaxed and safe place where they can see loads of fantastic women performers while learning some new skills themselves, and it's all volunteer-run and not-for-profit so that gives it a pretty unique atmosphere too. Workshops run alongside all the music throughout the weekend and they're a great icebreaker - its easy to have a laugh with strangers when you're all learning how to shake your wobbly bits in a bellydancing session.
Why isn't there a Manfest?
If you defined a 'manfest' as a festival where maybe 90% of the perfomers were all male, then you'd soon discover that practically every festival was a manfest. It might not be totally deliberate, but just look at the listings of any summer festival and you'll be able to count the female performers on one hand. It's really depressing - there's so many great female musicians but they seem to be invisible.
Can men come to Ladyfest too?
Absolutely. We want people of all genders to come along. Ladyfest concentrates on female musicians but that's not to say there's no men in some of the bands, and we've got some guys helping to organise it too. After all, men can be feminists too, and the best ones always are... The only except will be a couple of the workshops may be female-only - not because we're anti-men, but just because some women find it easier to try scary new stuff in an all-female environment. There wont be many all-female workshops, and the ones that are will be well-signposted.
Is it a queer thing or can you go / perform / sell stuff if you're straight?
No it's not officially a queer event, but then again it's not officially a straight event. Ladyfest's relaxed vibe means that no-one's going to be bothered to see you holding your girlfriend's hand, whether you're a boy or a girl. There are a few all-lesbian bands and a workshop on gender and sexuality, but it's not as if anyone's going to assume you're gay, straight or whatever if you go to them. Pigeonholes should be just for pigeons.
Is it a tight-knit group setting up Ladyfest Newcastle? Did you know each other before you got together to work on this thing?
The first 2 people were friends anyway, and it all began when we decided to stop talking and start doing! We made some flyers which we spread about town and a few other people joined through that, and then friends have been swept along too as the workload exploded. Probably about 30 people have been part of the group at some point, although quite a few dropped out and we've picked up others too along the way. Now we've got about 10 people, and we're a really diverse bunch of people, which works really well.
So you've booked the venue and everything... have the local authorities got any opinion on Ladyfest?
We've spoken to a few people from the council and other 'official' groups, and without exception they've all been really positive. It's really good to get their support, although of course support in the form of bags of lovely dosh would be even better...
Can you tell us more about your T-shirt competition?
We ran a competition to get some cool designs to put on tshirts to sell at the event. Partly it was just because we wanted to sell a few different tshirts to raise money for our charities and all our design skills were a bit crap, and partly because we were curious as to who would enter! We had some fantastic entries - everything from weird pictures of sculptures from professional artists to a pixelly pop art from Italy. We've picked 3 winners who will be unveiled on the Ladyfest weekend!
Who gets the cold hard cash at the end of the day?
Ladyfest is not for profit but we are planning to make a surplus, which we're dividing between three local charities: Tyneside Rape Crisis Centre, who support women who have suffered from sexual and physical abuse, Open Clasp Theatre Group, who provide performance therapy for women who have suffered abuse, and Lesbian Line, who are a Newcastle-based telephone service for women with problems related to their sexuality.
Some people thought riot grrrls and Generation Y feminists would just be a fad but they seem more active today than ever. Why do you think that is?
The media love to say that sexism is dead and feminism is unfashionable and un-needed, but it seems that an increasing number of women are taking a long hard look at society and seeing that a feminist response is needed more than ever, and - more importantly - they are redefining feminism to make it more meaningful to themselves. Modern feminists know that feminist isn't synonymous with lesbian, and neither of those two terms mean man-hating, despite what the popular press likes to think.
Ladyfest and Riot Grrrl both put an emphasis on craft - making artistic stuff for yourself. What do you think is empowering about girls learning to knit and cross-stitch?
It's not for everyone - I actually wrote a zine called 'Knitting Isn't Easy and Other Revelations' because I was gobsmacked at how hard it was! But for women who have more patience than me I think its a way of using your creativity, it enpowers you to freestyle and make exactly the things you want to wear, and it's a really cool way to keep in touch with your past. Women have been knitting and stitching and the like for generations, and we should embrace that.
Are there any fun group ways to affirm your belief in feminism in the UK apart from Ladyfest? It seems like pretty slim pickings to us Mookychicks...
I think there's small-scale stuff going on throughout the UK, but Ladyfests are a good way of bringing it all out and joining people together. Off the top of my head - London has some great clubs like Pottymouth (www.myspace.com/potty_mouth ) and Unskinny Bop (www.myspace.com/ubop), Leeds has a pretty solid feminsts scene around the Manifesta group (manifesta.co.uk) and Suck my Left One www.myspace.com/suckmyleftonedisco and there's Club Repulica in Middlesbrough www.myspace.com/fyr_tees There's probably tons more stuff going on, everyone just needs to talk more.... but hey, god bless myspace!
Is there a question we really should have asked you but we forgot?
The line-up will be on the website from next week. Tickets for the weekend are £16 and for the day are £10 and will be on sale from mid August, thanks for asking =)
Further Links
Mission statement
Mookychick believes that climbing trees and riding giant turtles is more fun and girly than worrying about make-up. But if you want to worry about make-up instead of turtles? Fine by us. Be you feminist, kitten, punk, emo, indie, goth, witch, vegan, horror junky, intellectual, christian goth, corset queen, geek, unicorn, sea monkey... be you into alternative style, alternative health, spirituality, comics, manga, j-pop, harajuku or jock culture... we will always love you.
