RIDING THE FEMME WAVE
A closer look at weekend festival’s fun
BACKGROUND
The first Femme Wave was originally conceived by founders Hayley Muir and Kaely Cormack, from Calgary punk act The Shiverettes, as a one-night concert of local bands featuring women in their lineups. When the support for it proved to be much more than expected — a Kickstarter campaign to raise $5,000 to fund it amassed much more — it grew into a larger, multi-date, multidiscipline event meant to encourage and facilitate “an integrated, encouraging arts scene with opportunities for women and nonbinary artists.” The success it was met with, the sold-out shows and interest from other performers, groups and organizations has necessitated that the sophomore fest has grown even more, with further elements added to it and a greater number of performers and events over the four days.
MUSIC
As with the inaugural event, you can expect to see and hear almost any and every genre when you step into a festival venue. But while the 2016 lineup featured acts and artists solely from the region, Femme Wave has cast its net further and will be bringing in some talent from around North America, including L.A.-based Peach Kelli Pop and Toronto garage-rockers Catl. There are also a number of acts from Saskatchewan, including Man Meat and Homo Monstrous, as well as a healthy collection of performers that will be making their way down the QEII, such as Feed Dogs, No Thrillz and Prince Bunny. The bulk of the bands and artists, though, are once again of the homegrown variety, with locals signed up including All Hands on Jane, FOONYAP, A-Bomb, Amy Nelson and a showcase of the young musicians who have participated in the annual Girls Rock Camp program.
VISUAL ART/COMEDY/FILM
While the music provides much of the entertainment over the course of Wave, there are plenty of other artistic pursuits that spread the message. The festival will get underway with some laughs, as after the Thursday night opening reception at the Commonwealth, comics will take the stage, including Patricia Cochlan, The Dirrty Show and Brittany Lyseng, with Adora Nwofor hosting. On the film side of things, there’s only one screening, that of the documentary Black Magic on Friday night at the Hifi. The film tells the story of an U.S. all-female jump-rope team that heads overseas to Britain in an attempt to break their own world record. The film will be preceded by a pair of Canadian-shot shorts, Sweet Night and Family Photo. And if you’re looking for a visual arts fix, there are a couple of exhibitions showcasing multiple artists: Un_form, which takes place Thursday in the Project Room at Stride Gallery, and features video works by artists Felix A. Tuba, Megan Gnanasihamany and Natalie Stevenson; and This Is What Makes Our Guts So Vibrant at Truck Contemporary Art on Friday, which is a group show featuring works by artists such as Emily MacDonald, Laura Hudspith and Susan Clarahan.
WORKSHOPS
New to Femme Wave this year is a large slate of workshops taking place on Sunday at the Royal Canadian Legion No. 1 with a pretty astounding array of focuses. Some of the highlights include: a swordplay and fight choreography workshop hosted by a local certified fight instructor; a workshop on hip-hop; finger-weaving and Indigenous holistic medicine; and astrology and Tarot readings. There will also be noise and scream workshops from Not Enough Fest Edmonton, which is “an initiative that brings together women, queer and trans artists to collaborate, make noise and take up space,” with an informational session on the upcoming Calgary chapter of the organization. And there will also be a panel discussion on cultural appropriation that’s being put on by the Society for the Advocacy of Safer Spaces. All of the workshops are all ages — although there will be certified caregivers on-site — and are pay-what-you-can, with a complete schedule of sessions and times available at femmewave.com.
ETC.
Festival wristbands are available now from the official site as well as single tickets for some of the events. While the majority of the big shows are 18-and-over gigs at licensed venues, there are also a handful of all-ages concerts on the Saturday, including the “soul breakfast” at Cafe Blanca and an evening of music at Tubby Dog featuring Preston, A-Bomb and others. For a complete list of events and ways to get involved in Femme Wave, go to femmewave.com. Femme Wave runs Thursday through Sunday at various locations. For festival wristbands and tickets go to femmewave.com.