On August 15th, 16th, and 17th (this weekend!) the much-anticipated Clitfest invades Chicago. We recently sat down with two of the organizers to talk about the hows and whys of putting together a feminist punk festival.
WOW: Why don’t we start out by having you guys introduce yourselves? Who are you and what do you do?
Kristin: I’m Kristin, I do fundraising for Clitfest, I make flyers, stuff like that.
Sarah: I’m Sarah, I booked a lot of the bands, I worked on booking the venue, I also do fundraising... just a lot of the general day to day housekeeping and organizing behind getting the fest going.
W: Is there one person in charge of the festival or is it more democratic?
K: Well, Sarah’s done a lot.
S: I feel like it’s been a very collective effort. I get to do a lot of things, but I think that was based on the fact that I’ve booked a lot of shows before, so I just kind of fell into doing certain things out of force of habit, you know? But there's a core group of about ten women, and I think that it’s been very collective and democratic since we started planning last August.
W: Can you guys give us a little bit of the history of Clitfest? What's it all about?
K: The first one was in Minneapolis in 2004, and the focus was on female musicians within the punk scene. They mostly just had bands from their local scene, but that’s how it started.
S: There’s a collective called Profane Existence – they do a record label, they have a message board, they do all kinds of stuff – they’re a fairly radical, independent punk group. They started Clitfest with the intention of really getting the faces of women in punk out there because, as I'm sure you know, there just aren't nearly as many women in the punk scene as there are men.
W: Were they focusing on the lack of women as musicians in bands, or as fans, or at shows?
S: Oh, all of the above, definitely. You know, going to shows and just being an observer, there’s not very many of us. And there are even less in bands! There have always been a lot of women active with Profane Existence, and they really wanted to showcase that there are women who do punk music. They also wanted to talk a little bit more about sexism in the scene, not only in the sense that there aren’t as many women participating, but how those women get treated.
K: In 2005 there was another one in Minneapolis. 2006 there wasn’t a Clitfest, but 2007 was Richmond, Virginia. People who have been to all of them said that every year, the general consensus is that there are going to be more and more bands, more and more women, more kinds of different bands, within different genres of punk – which is kind of funny to think about, but there definitely are – and more and more workshops. One of the big things Clitfest does besides bands is workshops around various feminist issues, and the workshops have only gotten better, encompassing a lot of different topics.
W: So is there one Clitfest per year across the country, or is there one in whatever city feels like organizing and hosting a Clitfest?
K: Last year, I think the organizers just felt like it needed to be done. Minneapolis had done it the year before and the Richmond people just decided to bring it together.
S: What Profane Existence told us when we approached them this year about doing it in Chicago was that they felt there should be a Clitfest in every city every year. And I think that’s true. We’re really, really lucky in Chicago. The punk scene in Chicago has tons of bands with women in them, and we have tons of women active in the scene. I go out of town a lot, I know a lot of people in various cities, I travel to see bands – my husband’s in a band, I used to play in a band – it’s just one of those things where you go out of town and everything is really awesome, but then you come home and you’re like, “Oh my God, the Chicago scene is pretty great!” Of course you have favorite bands here or there, and you have really great people you meet everywhere, but the depth of women who are involved in this city… it’s really great, and we really wanted to capitalize on that, and we have a lot of really great Chicago bands who are playing.
W: There have been other festivals highlighting women in music, like Ladyfest or Estrojam. How does Clitfest differ from those festivals?
S: Clitfest is primarily D.I.Y. punk bands. That’s something that’s been really important to us, and the D.I.Y. punk scene in Chicago is extremely strong. I’ve lived here for almost ten years and it just keeps going and going and going. I used to live in Buffalo and things would go up and go down and there would be peaks and valleys, but Chicago's been really consistently a great place to see independent punk music and that's what keeps me here.
W: A lot of times when people say female musicians, or “women in music,” they think of the singer-songwriter, the Ani DiFranco, the Tori Amos, people like that. Would you say you’re trying to differentiate yourself from the stereotypes of female artists looking or sounding a certain way?
S: Yeah, I mean, we have bands that are garage punk bands, crust bands, hardcore bands... we have a lot of different kinds of bands, and it’s all under that punk umbrella, but women write the songs, women play the drums, women play guitar, etc. In Chicago women set up shows and have a lot of involvement in different aspects of the scene, and it’s not just the woman behind the piano, or the one with the acoustic guitar, it’s a lot more broad than that. So we’re lucky about that too, ‘cause it’s not always the case. Where I grew up and when I was in Buffalo, there were two kinds of girls: the dykes, and what we would call the punk rock cheerleaders, who would go and flirt…
W: And do the girlfriend dance up by the stage?
S: Right! And if you weren’t one of those two, you know, where were you? It’s horrendous to be someone who was stuck in one of those two categories, and it took me a long time to realize... I was ready to give up on punk rock altogether until I moved here. Thankfully, I was able to find some really amazing women that were into the same things as me, and didn’t want to be the girlfriend holding the coat, or you know, some crazy, ultra… I don’t even know what the right word for it would be! But you couldn’t just be a normal person, you had to be some cartoonish figure that someone could draw, you know what I mean? You couldn’t just be yourself ,you had to be A or B, and that was it.
W: I think sometimes certain types of people require labels to more easily understand other people, or even themselves, you know?
S: Well, I think that happens 95% more frequently with women than it does with men. It’s ok for men to be crazy, but if women are crazy it’s a whole other scenario!
W: You mentioned earlier that in addition to having bands, you’re also having workshops as part of the festival?
K: Right, free workshops focusing on various women’s issues. For example, hygiene, self-help, there’s going to be a discussion on all the –isms in the scene. Plus we’re going to start off in the mornings with yoga, which is awesome.
S: We’re also having a workshop about herbal medicine, and we're having another one about “Gear 101,” which is something I don’t know that they’ve done at other Clitfests. I think that particularly in Chicago there are a lot of young women who are interested in music and are interested in bands who don’t know how to do a lot of the technical stuff.
W: This is how you fix your amp, this is how you tune your drums…
S: This is how you get the PA to not sound like shit! This is how you do this, that, and everything, and hopefully that’s going to be of some interest. There’s also going to be a “Know Your Rights” workshop... in addition to all the women in the Chicago scene who are awesome, Chicago is the home of one of the the largest Latino punk scenes in the United States. There are a lot of bands who do have Latino members who are playing the fest, and fundamentally, that is the Chicago scene. Anyway, one of the workshops we’re going to have is called “Know Your Rights,” and it touches on immigration rights and that sort of thing, which I don’t think they’ve done at other fests.
K: I don’t think so. I also think it’s cool that all the workshops are going to be facilitated by women.
W: So are the organizers all women?
K: Yup!
W: Was that by design, or…?
S: Design. We have a lot of men who were very interested and who have been very helpful at various points. But when it came down to regular meetings and decision making... we tried it and it kind of stifled some people.
W: They didn’t feel like it was quite the point of the festival?
S: Right. So we talked to these guys and said, "Look we’re really happy you're here, and thank you for doing this, but we’re going to have to take it from here." We’ve had problems, but they’ve been very minimal and very different than they would have been had there been men involved, I think.
W: So what have been some of the difficulties in putting together a festival of this magnitude?
S: Well, a lot of us come from different perspectives on how you set up a show, how the money’s going to work, that sort of thing… but those are all things we managed to work out, and I think that’s because we all have this really deep-seated desire to make this work and have it be a really awesome show. There have been a lot of heated discussions about the focus of the workshops, about scheduling, which bands to get… but I personally feel like 98% of this has been pretty problem-free. That’s just the way I perceive it.
K: Yeah, this is the first big fest I’ve ever worked on and it’s been an amazing experience.
W: Has it been difficult to fund the festival or find venues? I’ve never worked on putting together a festival like this, so I’m curious about the behind-the-scenes aspects of it.
K: No, I don’t think it was all that difficult.
S: I think the biggest challenge for us was that we really wanted to do an all-ages space, and that’s a dying breed in Chicago. We got really lucky in getting the Galaxie.
K: Which is woman-owned!
S: It’s pretty crazy, we’ve got women involved at all levels on this. But the owner was actually a bit reticent at first.
W: Was it because of the word “clit,” or the fact that you were specifically a punk rock festival?
S: I think it was a little bit of both. She’s done some punk shows there before where things got a little out of hand. Part of the space is like a dance studio, and at this other show, the mirror got broken, someone put a hole in the wall… so she knows what’s coming! But just between us talking to her and the community of people involved in this, it’s making her feel a lot more comfortable. So thank you, Leigh! It was actually a really interesting turn of events... after I went to go see her about booking the space, I walked away wondering if she was going to say yes. But the next day I ran into her on the train, and she told me that a lady had called her and wanted to have her wedding reception the night of our festival! And I was like, “Auugh! No, no, she can’t do it!” She said we had squatter’s rights, since we talked to her first. It’s that kind of stuff, when it works out, it’s crazy.
W: Did you have to get insurance or anything like that?
K: No, the owner is insured.
S: That was the problem with some of the other all-ages spaces we were looking at. We would have had to get our own insurance, which would have been a huge undertaking.
W: Well, the whole promoter’s ordinance came about while you guys were planning the fest.
K: Yeah, that was a little bit of a scare.
W: For everyone in the city, I think! So it’s completely woman-run, but what about the bands? Are they exclusively all-girl, or girls and guys? Who do you have playing the festival?
S: We decided after a lot of discussion that it would be great to say it can only be bands with all women, but we could have done that on a Sunday afternoon in my backyard! Ha, ha, just kidding.
K: We have four or five bands that are all-female, out of 17 total bands.
W: Are you gearing the fest towards mostly girls?
K: Everybody!
W: Everyone who can legally get into the show?
K: Exactly.
W: But it actually is at an all-ages venue, right?
K: Right, the Galaxie is all-ages, that’s where the Friday and Saturday shows are. And then Sunday is a house show, so all three days are all-ages.
W: Isn’t Sunday the guys’ show?
S: We talked about doing that initially, but it didn’t ever turn out.
K: We just had too many bands! So we had to do another day for the bands with women in them.
W: Oh, no, too many girls in bands want to play your festival! That's so sad!
S: Ha! Yeah, it worked out pretty well! We’re really happy about it.
W: So we talked about challenges, but what have been some of your favorite things about putting on Clitfest? What is it that keeps you going, and keeps you coming back to meetings? Is it (co-organizer) Val’s cupcakes?
S: Yeah!
K: That’s a huge part of it, I’m not gonna lie.
S: Those cupcakes have funded like 90% of this festival. She’s our den mom! Honestly, for me it’s the chance to get to know some of the women involved in a more meaningful, intimate way. I mean, you can be here and live in a city like Chicago and be a part of the scene and never know everybody. So that kind of stuff is more valuable to me than anything. I mean, I think the show is going to be really good, but moreso, it’s this feeling of knowing everybody and meeting these people I’ve been seeing for years and actually seeing what makes them tick… that’s been awesome.
K: I got into it because I really wanted to know more people. I’ve been going to shows in Chicago for a while, but I just moved into the city a couple years ago. Right now I am just so excited because we’ve come together so well. There are so many details that the women involved have made happen… it’s just so amazing.
W: So there’s never been a Clitfest in Chicago before, and you weren’t involved in planning the previous incarnations, but is there anything that you’re trying to do differently? Anything from the other Clitfest shows that you’d like to learn from and either continue and/or improve on?
K: Personally, I thought the workshops kind of sucked, so we’re trying to make ours better for this year’s fest.
S: I don’t know much about the workshops at the other Clitfests, but I think we’re so lucky in Chicago to have such a broad base of different people. I think that musically, there will be a lot of diversity, and you’re going to hear a lot of bands that sound very different from each other. I know the organizers of the other Clitfests brought people in from out of town, and for me, that’s very important to continue. There are bands that we love and couldn’t have, but as I’m sitting here looking at the flyer, every day of this fest is awesome, and there are bands every single day that I’m excited to see. I can’t think of very many festivals I can say that for!
K: We have bands coming from around the world: Banjax from Japan, Cojoba from Puerto Rico…
W: Wow, are they flying in on their own dime, or were you able to help bring them in?
S: They contacted us and said they wanted to play! They’re going to book some other shows around Clitfest, so anyone who reads this and hears of a show for a band called Banjax, go see them and give them money, ‘cause they’re from Japan, and they’re not asking for anything! There’s also a band called The Brat
from California who is getting back together to play the show, and there are two bands coming from Boston… But as far as money, we’re going to donate a portion of the proceeds from Clitfest to the Chicago Women's Health Center.
W: What made you select the Chicago Women’s Health Center as a beneficiary over any other organization?
K: Well, a lot of us have gone there, and a lot of us know people that work there.
S: And it seemed like the Chicago Women’s Health Center reached the greatest number and greatest variety of women in Chicago. If we don’t get behind that, what can we get behind?
K: We’re going to be selling t-shirts, we’re having a raffle… all the proceeds from that go to the Chicago Women's Health Center. We’ve had so many amazing people in the community that have donated for this raffle. We’ve also got cds, a Men of Clitfest calendar…
W: Is this a blue calendar?
S: Yes! It’s men of the Chicago punk scene.
K: Some more exposed than others!
S: It’s just our hope that everyone buys a ticket, and everyone comes to the shows and watches the bands, and everyone walks away happy.
Clitfest is happening this weekend, Friday and Saturday at the Galaxie (2603 W. Barry) and Sunday at Ranchos Huevos (2966 S. Archer Avenue). For a full schedule of bands and events, please visit their website or the Clitfest profile on Myspace.
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