Member Article

Female Music and Arts Festival Fundraiser

Ladyfest Newcastle – the weekend-long festival to promote women’s involvement in music and art – has its first fundraiser next Thursday.

Ladyfest Newcastle is taking place in September, and will be a weekend-long festival of music, art, spoken word poetry, workshops and discussion groups.

The aim of the festival is to showcase and celebrate the creative talents of women, both in the local area and nationally. Explaining the reason behind Ladyfest Newcastle, Heather Barry, one of the organisers, said: “Almost all festivals are male-dominated - Ladyfest is a chance to redress the balance in a positive way.

We’re not by any means seeking to discriminate against men, we simply wish to create a supportive space in which women performers and artists can express themselves creatively. “We decided to organise Ladyfest Newcastle because we felt frustrated that there was all this incredible talent in Newcastle that simply wasn’t getting the recognition it deserved.

Women musicians in particular seemed to be marginalized in the local music scene, with local gig promoters simply not that interested in combating the problem. We decided that the best way to reveal all the great female musicians in and around Newcastle was to put on a music festival to showcase what there was.“ Next week’s gig will be the first of several fundraisers to raise money for the not-for-profit festival. Headlining the fundraiser on Thursday will be critically acclaimed duo Lake Me, with support from World is Static, Saugal Massie and an acoustic set from Jo of The Ladies Mercury. The fundraiser will be at the Head of Steam in Newcastle, at 7pm, and entrance is £3. For more information, please see www.ladyfestnewcastle.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .