‘Girls just wanna have fun!’ and be included on festivals and be treated fairly in business…. FemmeFest Appalachia is made by and for those who celebrate women and non-binary artists taking the stage. This festival lineup includes Hello June, Natural Rat, Buni Muni, Living Room, Somana, Bek and The Starlight Revue, Chocolate 4Wheeler, Maggie And The Farmcats, and Ginger Wixx.
I got to have a chat with Becca Fraulein about plans for Saturday, March 25th:
Erika Lawson HNN: I am delighted to sit down with Becca to talk about FemmeFest Appalachia a little bit. Full disclaimer, I am performing (Buni Muni) so I’m really excited about that. -But there’s a lot more to this event than just me! Becca, could you tell me a little bit about what you do and how you got involved with FemmeFest?
Becca Fraulein: Yeah, sure. I saw a bunch of posts online post festival season from a lot of women musicians and queer musicians that were kind of disappointed about not having more inclusive lineups. So, there was talk of ‘maybe we should like… organize a festival?’ Annie Wolfe, Holly Forbes, Hello June- I saw their posts. And then it kind of culminated and was like, ‘Yeah! we should do festival!’ and I was like “I’ll help” and now I’m the co-organizer. So, yeah, we’re just building a lineup of women and non-binary artists that will be performing. We’ve got like eight or nine people on the lineup and we’re really excited about vendors and art and all that good stuff.
EL: Yeah, cool. It’s a pretty stacked bill and there’s all kinds of variety- everything from acoustic bluegrass to more electronic stuff to just some good old rock and roll. What are some of the arts and vendor things going on at FemmeFest?
BF: We will have an artist there, Kim Keffer, who’s going to be doing a live drawing while we have bands and things like that playing. We’re also going to have vendors there from like food artists, Leah Gore will be there with some baked goods and then we’ll also have some different artists- everything from jewelry to crochet to a lot of stickers, you know, prints, stuff like that. So yeah, a bunch of different things to see and do so come early and check things out while it’s still light out a little bit and then come party for the rest of the night.
EL: Yeah, this is gonna be an all-day event. Doors open in the mid late afternoon? What are the times we’re looking at?
BF: Doors open at five. The show starts at six so you have an hour to come in and talk to the vendors before it starts getting a little party vibes. And yes, and it should go on until about one. (5pm-1am)
EL: Awesome. Do we have someone who’s gonna host the show this year?
BF: We do! We have comedian Angie Davis. She is a veteran comedian who has been in the scene for about 10 years- maybe more! When I needed a host, she was one of the first people I thought of and she was down. I just I love her so much. She’s one of the funniest people I know and I’m glad to have her.
EL: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that. What else should we talk about with the festival any other quirky fun things?
BF: Well, we’re really excited to have Hello June as our headliner. Sar has been very outspoken online about festival organizers (or anybody that’s involved in creative scenes) to include more women and more queer people. Any kind of diversity should be celebrated in the music community and the art scene. So, we’re really excited to have somebody so outspoken about these issues that we care about too headlining and kind of going out of the way, honestly. She’s doing us a solid and we’re really appreciative of that.
EL: Yeah, I’m really excited to see Hello June. Festival lineups and just the music biz in general… It doesn’t seem like it would be so hard to have kind of a near 50/50 representation or something but it’s so so lacking. This will be a really great event to just see the ladies shine.
BF: Yeah, we just want it to be like a nice vibe and good atmosphere for people to just hang out and be themselves and enjoy the show. Like, we don’t often get eight women and non-binary artists in a lineup all at once. So it’s cool, I hope people enjoy it.
EL: I’m sure they will. I’m looking forward to it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. So thank you so much for having a chat with us today.
BF: Thank you, Erika. And thank you to HNN.
The Loud is located at 741 6th Ave, Huntington, WV 25701
FemmeFest is for ages 18+
Doors open at 5, Show starts at 6
Tickets: $20 advance, $25 day of show
To purchase, visit the venue website: https://theloudwv.com/event/femmefest-appalachia/the-loud/huntington-west-virginia/