Written by Sandeep Sehbi

FemmeFest was a successful first year festival last year, held in reaction to FMMF’s decision to try to bring in R. Kelly as a headliner for their inaugaral fest. While it was a reaction to the R. Kelly booking scandal, FemmeFest is also deeply rooted in a longstanding tradition of activism and outreach within Central Ohio. A collaboration between the activist community, the arts scene, and the academic community, FemmeFest hopes to educate, raise funds for a worthy cause, and expose people to things they perhaps havent seen or heard before. We talk to FemmeFest staff member Leighanna DeRouen for further insights. 

TUNED UP: The flyer for Femme Fest looks rad this year, who designed it?

Leighanna DeRouen: All of our art and design is done by one of our organizers, Raeghan Buchanan. She’s immensely talented and well-versed in design as well as being an outstanding illustrator. Everything she does for FemmeFest feels so cohesive and smooth. It feels like ours. I’m pretty sure we even have our own font.

TUNED UP: This year includes more days, more events. Was that a conscious move?

Leighanna DeRouen: The extra day wasn’t planned for initially. There were so many things and places we wanted to include that we really couldn’t fit everything in 2 or 3 days and expect anyone to not be overwhelmed. Most of the venues we’re working with this year are places we worked with last year with a couple exceptions. It really just kind of happened organically. When were the particular venues available? When were particular performers, etc available? We did plan for the variety of events though. That was something we had wanted to do last year but didn’t have the time to pull together.

TUNED UP: The charity has changed, Bravo Ohio benefits this year. Can you explain the reasons for the change?

Leighanna DeRouen: Last year we worked with the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence and we had a really great experience with them. It was a hard decision this year but one that ultimately came down to two things. OAESV is a fantastic organization that reaches the entire state of Ohio, though because our festival focuses on the communities in Columbus we wanted the charity this year to reflect that. Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization is located right in the heart of the city and they have their finger on the pulse of the nuances of Columbus. The other reason we chose BRAVO is that they specifically serve the LGBTQIA community. With our festival’s intention of celebrating non-binary/women-identifying people, BRAVO just made sense.

TUNED UP: There are a series of educational panels this year, workshops, that lead one to believe there is a shift being made from purely music to more scholarly means. Would you agree with that read? How and why did that evolution occur?

Leighanna DeRouen: So I think a lot of times people can be really interested in an issue, not know much about it, and then don’t know where to go to ask questions they may have. Some of the workshops are intended to provide a space for people to ask the questions they might have while others are intended to bring passionate folks together. It isn’t necessary to get really academic with this stuff in order to explain it because the issues are real and people live them on a daily basis. We’re all still learning every day and even between our organizers we have different life experiences and intersections. So I don’t know that I would read it as a shift so much as an incorporation.

TUNED UP: This round includes a wide spread of talented performers, how was performer interest and anticipation going in this year?

Leighanna DeRouen: Most everyone was really excited to hear from us and we received a lot of inquiries about people wanting to perform. We even had a performer TELL us she was going to play and you can’t ignore that kind of passion.

TUNED UP: Is there a mission statement for FemmeFest?

Leighanna DeRouen: To create an empowering music festival that focuses on women of diverse identities and gender expressions in order to enrich our local community, as well as raising funds to combat violence, and affect positive change for women’s rights in central Ohio.

TUNED UP: Are you still taking volunteers for this round?

Leighanna DeRouen: Unfortunately we’re full up for this year but anyone interested in helping BRAVO out can do so through their website bravo-ohio.org

Relevant Links:
https://www.facebook.com/FemmeFestColumbus
https://femmefest.org
https://www.bravo-ohio.org