I made many good friend and bonded with women for a lifetime. We’d say things like, “See you in August”, “Are you going to Southern this year?” “Are you working at Robin’s West Coast festival or are you going to NEWMR back East?” My local festival was Campfest in Pennslyvania, produced by Lee Glanton to create and celebrate lesbian community. I started working there in the 90’s and still cry every Memorial day weekend since it stopped happening.
Sisterspace was a real throwback festival; I felt like I traveled back in time to the 80s and 90s and it felt good. Alix Dobkin was there. I went as her guest and it was a fun and privileged way to attend a festival. I didn’t have to do a work shift, so I begged Alix to let me carry her guitar to the sound check to earn my keep. But what I realized is working for 20 years at festivals for little or no money, I earned my keep and my place in the lesbian nation. It was and is the unpaid workers, most of them lesbians who created these festivals and keep them going. Dykes who had resources could invest their time and money in producing festivals, and some performers and craft women earned their livelihoods there. I always knew my place was as a worker and I was proud of that and rich beyond money from my experiences. I grew up at these festivals, and learned lessons that are with me today. Plus it was FUN!
Do Young Queer Women Need Womyn’s Music Festivals?
I try to think as a young queer woman now, would I need or want to go to women’s music festivals? There are cruises and vacations and Dinah Shore parties. There are places like San Francisco and P-town Northampton and Key West. The key word that is missing from these places, Alix reminded us at the workshop, was feminism. Yes the F-word is missing in most of these places, vacations and parties. And that makes me sad. For to me the word Queer where it once meant gay now means man. Women are invisible in the new “gender/studies” world. We either want to actually be men or be just like them. Femme girls want to date transmen, butches are on the outs. Woman hating is alive and it’s right in our back yard. Yet how can we fight it? We asked a young woman at the workshop what does Queer mean to you? What I understood was it included everyone but white hetero-men born men. No where was woman-loving mentioned.
I realize we are the older generation and by definition we are the establishment. So it is the right of passage for the young queer women to rebel against us. I remember rebelling against the butch-femme roles of the 50s. This is fine, but when the rebellion goes too far, I have to get off the intergenerational merry-go-round. When dyke no longer means woman and loving women is obsolete, then I say good luck but I’m out of here. There’s nothing more I can add to the discussion.
It’s funny because at times we are saying the same things. The young women at Sisterspace all agreed they loved being in a woman-only environment and were happy to discover Sisterspace. YES!! How about telling all your friends.
Hey maybe it will come back around again, and festivals will start popping up and young dykes will start claiming these institutions as their own. Maybe some day we will all agree that being a lesbian/dyke/queer woman means loving women and putting them first in our lives. Maybe the LF word will replace the L Word on TV. What power that would generate. I’ll be the first to say see, isn’t this fun!!
Retts Scauzillo is a free lance writer and a lesbian feminist drag king living in the Catskill mts of NYS.
