A festival: held indoors, with minimal travel between stages, where most acts are staggered so you don’t miss any, with no bar queues and clean toilets? What festival witchery is this? Not only that but a lovely, inclusive festival that felt safe, friendly and respectful. More importantly, a festival with incredible bands – that happened to be fronted by female / non binary artists. Well done LOUD WOMEN. It was banging.
Let me set the scene. The festival was held at Rich Mix, which is a community arts centre located in the vibrant and arty Shoreditch. Rich Mix is a charity, so every pound they make goes straight back into supporting work in the community and transforming lives through creativity. This felt like a perfect space to celebrate the diversity of women and minority represented genders in the music industry. Also for northerners like me it made up for the London beer prices, at least we knew any profit would be used well.
There was a large room downstairs, with seating around the edge for people to have a rest. A smaller room upstairs for a more intimate experience. Then occasional surprise acts between sets in the halls. Such as performances from the incredible Samba Sisters. The acts were staggered and then many were introduced by speakers, such as the incredible trade unionist and feminist Janine Booth, and representatives from organisations such as Bloody Good Period and Alliance for Choice.
The stewards were super friendly and helpful. The crowd were so nice. I spent a fair amount of time loitering around the back as I was with my tall partner and he didn’t want to block the views of smaller people. I had to encourage several people to stand in front of me. LOUD WOMEN Fest demonstrated how a festival could be when there is an unwritten understanding that it is everyone’s responsibility to create a safe and enjoyable environment. The bands demonstrated inclusivity, such as Vernon Jane encouraging people to get down low for a song – acknowledging that not everyone can and to only try if it is comfortable to do so. Yakkie demonstrated this by creating a mosh pit at the front and encouraging CIS men to move back and make space for women and nonbinary people to dance. All this, combined with seeing families enjoying music together and enjoying the idea of children getting hugely important feminist messages during their formative years was a powerful and humbling experience for me.
I wish I could have enjoyed every moment but I was travelling from Manchester so I missed the first and last few acts. I already know they would have been incredible and I will be making an effort to see you on the road soon. Here are some of the acts I caught though.
Vernon Jane
We arrived just as Vernon Jane were starting and what a welcome that was. This band is a euphony of beautiful notes and sounds, with vocals and guitar by frontwoman Emily, backed up by atmospheric guitar, jazzy bass and drums (kudos to the drummer from my partner) and then quirky distorted horns. Vernon Jane describe themselves as jazz punk. I describe myself as a jazz hater, however if all jazz sounded as cool as this band you would find me down my local jazz bar nightly. It was interesting, LOUD, exciting and punchy. Frontwoman Emily presents as the kindest and most compassionate human, showing a gentle vulnerability whilst banging out massive vocals; all together this is a band of beautiful contradictions that get you dancing. I’m a fan and I can’t wait to see them again.
Janine Booth
Janine is a self-described Marxist, trade unionist, socialist-feminist, author, poet, speaker, tutor, former RMT Executive member, supporter of Workers’ Liberty, neurodivergent, bi, Peterborough United (men’s footy) and Lewes FC (women’s footy) fan. She introduced Gold Baby (below) with her spectacular arousing poetry, which touched on topics such as failures in school inclusive practices and poverty. I suspect she might not like the Tories. Her passion and prose made for a stirring introduction to the excellent following act.
Gold Baby
I checked out Gold Baby on the way down and the moment I heard the song Betty I knew that I’d love this band. Reminiscent of another band I came across recently called The Beths, with a hint of one of my true musical loves Regina Spektor. The band’s well-constructed songs, melodies and gorgeous harmonies added a sweetness to my afternoon. The folksy country vibe was perfect and Siân was a witty, endearing front person.
Yakkie
It became clear why I couldn’t find much information on Yakkie in prior research, as during the band’s introduction it was announced that LOUD WOMEN Fest was their first live performance. How ace is that? It also was revealed to me on LOUD WOMEN social media that front woman Janey Stirling was also the former frontwoman of Dream Nails, it all seemed so obvious why I instantly loved the punky dancey tunes. It would be remiss of me to mention the banging cover of 99 Red balloons.
However, more importantly, Janey took some time to speak about an issue she was clearly passionate about. She made the very clear point that intimate partner homicide (most commonly perpetrated by men against women) rarely happens spontaneously, in fact there is usually a number of violent incidents as well as coercive control until that final point. She encouraged the audience to look into the murder of Clare and Charlotte Hart, by Clare’s husband who was later dubbed a ‘nice guy’ in the media. She focussed on the campaign by Clare’s sons Luke and Ryan, in partnership with the organisation Level Up to set media guidelines about how victims of intimate partner homicide are portrayed in the press and to educate about coercively controlling relationships.
So forgive me for using more words on the message than the music. The music was awesome, there is no denying it. The message however needs to be the takeaway from this experience. I’m confident Janey will forgive me since no one can speak as passionately as she did without it being genuine. I hear you, I applaud you, thank you for sticking up for women who are no longer able to.
I, Doris
I reviewed I, Doris back in May where I expressed surprise that a band of dinner ladies would swear and sing about masturbation. This time I was ready, I was looking forward to it and so was everyone around me.
Banging out their latest release ‘HRT‘, they were louder, more brazen and funnier than I remembered. Or perhaps just this time I was able to relax and just enjoy the gig, in a perfect environment. The lyrics are witty, the melodies are catchy, with good hooks that will be the earworm of the rest of my September.
This time I was really able to enjoy the drumming by Charlotte. As well as an excellent drumming performance, I was able to observe just how much she rocked out and it was mesmerising. Overall, this performance brought me joy, laughter and solidarity. It helped me to understand and be incredibly proud to be part of LOUD WOMEN.
The Dollheads
Hailing from Las Vegas, this international band brought raucous American sounds with fast and loud drums, catchy basslines, guitars, power vocals and harmonies. Creating a range of sounds, such as the Blinkesque bouncy and fun song ‘I wish I were a Demon’, contracted with the punkier ‘Parasite’. They were the perfect pick me up during a long day as you can’t avoid dancing.
The Empty Page
Shout out to the Manchester band Empty Page. I’m amazed that I had to travel to London to come across this band. I’ve clearly been living under a rock because when researching it seems they’re everywhere and everyone is bigging them up. Angsty, loud punk, where you can clearly still hear the lyrics, sang in a Manc accent, is my fav kind of punk. All that said, the catchy pop vibes means you can still dance. Check out the video for When the Cloud Explodes for inspiration on dance moves. I will be seeing them again in Manchester very soon.
Jock
Queer garage punk band, from Belfast. This band was my happy surprise for the day. I wasn’t able to find much on them ahead of time but this only made the experience better. This was another ‘stop reviewing and started dancing’ moment for me. The rage released during ‘spoilsport’, which puts the spotlight on problematic men who prefer to make women who speak out the problem rather than interrogating their own behaviour. Yeah, I felt this song in my bones. When they screamed I screamed with them. Thanks, I needed that!
I know I’ve gone over my word count but every band I saw deserved something to be said about them. I am genuinely gutted that I wasn’t able to catch every act but a mini food break and travel got in the way. Every single band from this festival are on my must see again list, I will dance and I will enthusiastically tell everyone I meet what an amazing experience LOUD WOMEN Fest is.