Ladyfests have been occurring for a while since it’s original inception in August 2000 in Olympia, Washington. In the years since, it has been an locally organized in communities nationally to internationally from Honolulu, Hawaii to Mexico to Toulouse, France and to Johannesburg, South Africa. This year a Ladyfest will blossom out from the quaint college town of Bellingham, Washington.

The whole idea surrounding Ladyfest is empowerment for women, queer, and women identifying individuals in a hetero-male dominated society. The music scene is definitely full of that culture where there are predominantly male musicians and what is little room for other genders to be a part of. As like other Ladyfests, Ladyfest Bellingham is meant to encourage women to take charge and create music, art, and help organize for the festival itself. Organizing the event has given a bit of a push to the people who are involved by doing things they haven’t necessarily done before like looking into spaces to have the festival take place in, organizing volunteer events, and booking bands to play. It’s wonderful because it’s like everything is starting something  from scratch and everyone has their individual niches they can use to make this cake. Absolutely beautiful!

The planning for the event started around October 2008 and since then the community in Bellingham has been very supportive of it. There have been a plethora of benefit shows (even unofficial) and quite a few opportunities for people to volunteer for rather than just toss money into a hat. Although there have been situations where people have asked questions such as “Well isn’t that a bit exclusive to have a womens only event?” That brings a revisit to the before mentioned point that we live in a patriarchal society along in correlation that it being an extreme shift to an all women run event is very necessary.

The even takes place from Thursday, June 25th to Sunday, June 29th in various locations in Bellingham, Washington. For more information on Ladyfest Bellingham, their event details and amazing lineup, go to LadyfestBham.org.