The Olympian/file
The original Ladyfest, which took place Aug. 1-6, 2000, in downtown Olympia, made $30,000 profit and spawned four similar festivals around the world in 2001. At least nine more are planned for this year and 2003.

Ladyfest

The Olympian/file
Ladyfest Olympia attendees packed the Capitol Theater nightly for music acts including Sleater-Kinney.

Ladyfest lives on

Organizers around the world plan versions of the Olympia-bred festival

ROSS RAIHALA THE OLYMPIAN

Bridget Irish laughs when she remembers the weeks leading up to the original Ladyfest in Olympia.

"There were worries we had screwed up and we would owe people money," Irish says. "But it was absolutely huge and went beyond all expectations."

In fact, the inaugural Ladyfest, which took place the first six days of August 2000 in downtown Olympia, ended up showing a $30,000 profit that organizers donated to Safeplace Rape Relief Women's Shelter Services and the Pat Shively Memorial Health Fund.

But the event also ended up inspiring visitors from as far away as Scotland to mount four similar festivals in 2001.

And now the coming year will see at least nine more Ladyfests, both in the States (Atlanta, New York City, San Francisco) and abroad (London, Paris).

"It's fantastic," says Carla DeSantis, editor of Seattle's Rockrgrl magazine. "It's so exciting to see how Ladyfest has blossomed. And as Olympia was the birthplace, I think that says something about Washington state and the people who live here."

- - -

More than 50 South Sound women banded together to organize the first Ladyfest, which featured nightly concerts as well as performance and visual art, film, fashion shows, workshops and more than a little political discourse. Ladyfest earned the attention of the national media, including a spread in Time magazine.

The idea from the beginning was not to make it an annual Olympia event, but to inspire those in attendance to create their own Ladyfests across the country.

"Copy us, please," said Ladyfest publicist Maggie Vail at the time.

And the ladies who visited Ladyfest listened.

Last year saw Ladyfests take place in Chicago, New York, Indiana and Scotland.

Many of the original Ladyfest participants went on to perform for or simply attend the first round of sequels. Vail's band Bangs and Olympia's the Gossip even flew overseas for the Glasgow event and followed it up with a mini-tour of England.

"Glasgow was already being organized during the festival (in Olympia)," says Teresa Carmody, a budget coordinator for Olympia's Ladyfest. "And at each of the festivals, people made a lot of connections.

"But I think the thing that is most amazing about this is that it's a testament to how you can make your own events in your own town. You don't have to have a corporate-tied festival where they're just trying to market to you."

- - -

Atlanta-based singer/songwriter Doria Roberts performed at Ladyfests in Chicago and New York last year and acted as a sort of "Ladyfest South ambassador" to drum up interest in an event back home.

Roberts is now one of seven project advisers planning Ladyfest South in Atlanta.

The original organizers, Roberts says, have been more than accommodating.

"I think that's what has made Ladyfest so pervasive," says Roberts. "They gave us their blessing and said, 'Good luck and keep us updated.'

"Ladyfest really is a perfect example of what true feminism is about, empowering women."

- - -

Another important aspect of the coming Ladyfests is that they don't replicate the original or its first generation of sequels. Instead, each Ladyfest hopes to reflect its own region's culture.

"People have taken this idea and made it their own," says Irish, who went on to perform at Chicago's Ladyfest last year. "We have encouraged them to make it special to their own community and each, I think, has been successful in its own way."

Karina Kinik, public relations coordinator for Ladyfest Bay Area, says her organizing group has drawn from San Francisco's rich community of radical subcultures.

"We're really trying to capitalize on our diverse population," says Kinik. "And we've got people who never knew one another starting to work together. And it's been pretty incredible (to find) so much passion and commitment to sponsoring women in the arts and women musicians."

- - -

Sasa Foster created the original Ladyfest Web site and keeps it updated with links to the events it has inspired.

"We did tell people we wouldn't do another Ladyfest in Olympia," says Foster, "but I definitely didn't expect so many would follow. We're getting to 14, 15, 16 Ladyfests now. It's awesome."

With Ladyfest.org as a home base, organizers around the country are kept up to date on what others are doing.

For instance, when the women behind Ladyfest DC and Ladyfest Philly realized they had planned events one week apart, Ladyfest Philly pushed its festival back seven months.

"We didn't want to create a sense of competition," says Laura Bardwell, a member of the band and budget committees for Ladyfest Philly. "The sense of community Ladyfest is supposed to foster was in danger, so we decided to push back. And when we started thinking about having extra time to plan, we realized it was a positive thing."

Elizabeth Allin, a coordinator for Ladyfest D.C., calls it a great example of coalition politics in action: "It has worked out really well. They're going to help at ours and we'll help them over there."

The Philadelphia event stands as the first Ladyfest to announce dates for 2003. There already is talk of Ladyfests in Seattle and Florida, among other places, in the new year.

Rockrgrl's DeSantis says she can't wait for a Ladyfest Asia: "And I don't think that's too far in the future."

But don't expect to see another Ladyfest in Olympia any time soon.

"It was a full-time plus job to do it," says Irish. "And it was really a once-in-a-lifetime sort of experience. Besides, I think it's more exciting to see what all these other people are doing."

Ross Raihala covers music and entertainment for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-754-5406 or RRAIHALA@olympia.gannett.com.

The original Ladyfest took place Aug. 1-6, 2000, in Olympia and spawned four similar festivals in 2001. The Web site www.ladyfest.org contains links to the following Ladyfests planned for this year and 2003:

- Ladyfest Lansing: April 11-14, Lansing, Mich.

- Ladyfest Bay Area: July 24-28, San Francisco.

- Ladyfest D.C.: Aug. 7-11, Washington, D.C.

- Ladyfest Europe: August, Paris.

- Ladyfest London: Summer, London.

- Ladyfest Los Angeles: Aug. 30-Sept. 1, Los Angeles.

- Ladyfest East: Sept. 5-8, New York City.

- Ladyfest South: Oct. 10-13, Atlanta.

- Ladyfest Philly: March 20-23, 2003, Philadelphia.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

back to main South Sound Living index