On Sunday December 3, popular Brooklyn venue Baby’s All Right is teaming up with Hi Tide to bring you a day-long music festival starring female-led bands. The fest, organized by friends in the local music scene, aims to promote music made by women, carving out space for women and non binary folk in a scene so often dominated by cis men. Local musician Ana Asnes Becker (Fruit & Flowers) said she got the idea for the fest when commenting on a friend’s Facebook post which asked for ideas for bands with women: “I thought, well why I don’t just put as many as I can think of at the top of my head because I wanted to be a voice that promoted other women musicians around me. I posted so many links and tags that Facebook stopped letting me comment on the thread. Then we thought it would be really cool if we just made this into a fest of its own”.
Hi Tide, a new music events promotion company, was founded by Becker and local musician Tim Race (Big Bliss) in an effort to minimize the hardships of booking a DIY tour alone. “We both know a lot of really good bands and we really like supporting our friends and supporting the scene” explained Race, “so we started Hi Tide to be an available promoter for good bands that we know of that are touring New York and don’t have available resources for a solid show.” But also at the forefront of Hi Tide’s ethos is the commitment to represent female, queer, and racially diverse identities. Becker, who works double time as a booker for Brooklyn venue Cape House, says she won’t even consider a proposed bill with no women on it.
A Deer A Horse (photo by Mabel Suen)
Becker and Race were thoughtful about the messaging of the event as well, being careful not to perpetuate a stereotype already so detrimental to female musicians. “We realize that creating a fest of all bands that are led by women is a bit othering—instead of just calling it a fest with bands. But I think that the aim of it is to integrate the idea of women musicians into the larger awareness of musicians” explains Becker. Even the name of the festival is intentional. Using a gender-neutral term such as “Babe” opens the fest up to trans and non binary identities, and, as Becker says, “because anybody can be a babe.”
Rose Blanshei of PRIMA (photo by Sasha Lecca)
Hi Tide founders made this DIY “pie in the sky” a legitimate fest by enlisting help from some of the scene’s top organizers. Some players include local musician Gwynn Galitzer (No Ice) and founder of collective Suffragette City, who first suggested that the fest double as a fundraiser for sexual assault survivors. Others include, Janeth Ann Gonda (Espejismo) and events manager here at BUST magazine, Jessica Dye (HIGH WAISTED), Rachel Rossen (Verdigrls), Amanda Jun (Crazy Pills), and Emily Madge (Treads).
Babes All Rock Fest is a community effort curated by some of the most thoughtful and dedicated musicians in the scene. The bands, which are handpicked by friends who care about good music, are some of New York’s finest and most talented babes. But not only that, fifty percent of all profits made will go to NYC-based SAVI, a sexual assault violence and intervention program which aids sexual assault survivors. If you are looking for a meaningful way to engage with your community by supporting local music, look no further. Babes All Rock Fest is the ultimate indie rock smasher guaranteed to not only rock your face, but to smash the patriarchy.
Join us at Babes All Rock Fest 2017
Featuring:
DJ’ed by Jessica Louise Dye (HIGH WAISTED)
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