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All-inclusive feminist festival brings people together

LadyFest, the annual all-inclusive feminist festival, will be taking place Saturday at Spark Contemporary Art Space.

The festival, which is in its third year celebrating women, people of color and people in the LGBT community, is set up by organizers Meghan Tamilio and Cara Luddy.

“I decided to start LadyFest because I felt like Syracuse needed a turbo blast of feminism,” Tamilio said.

She said empowering women is the central message of the festival, since there previously wasn’t a real niche for a feminist festival in Syracuse and the music and art scene was male-dominated.

“We aim to celebrate women in the arts and give women a place to express themselves and showcase their talent,” Tamilio said.

She added that she hopes the festival will continue for many years to come.

The first two years LadyFest was held at the Westcott Community Center, which Tamilio picked because of the central location. This year, though, it is happening at Spark Contemporary Art Space, which she said will be better because the space is larger and they will have “more freedom to do what we want.”

The headliner of the festival is Sammus, a rapper from Ithaca. Tamilio describes her as talented and a self-proclaimed feminist. Luddy, one of the co-organizers, is responsible for getting her to perform as well as Green Dreams, which is another popular feminist act from Rochester. A number of other artists will also be performing.

The first year I posted a lot of flyers and utilized social media to get the word out, and I got a lot of really great responses. I think the theme of the event struck a chord with a lot of people, hence the reason they wanted to get involved.
Meghan Tamilio

Tamilio said the reactions to LadyFest have been all positive, adding that people have expressed gratitude, excitement and inspiration.

“The funniest reaction has probably been, ‘Can guys go?’ The answer to that is yes, of course guys can go and we encourage it,” she said.

Elizabeth Sedore, a junior women’s and gender studies major at Syracuse University, said it is super important this kind of event is happening in the city of Syracuse.

“It’s really great to celebrate all marginalized identities, and that’s the objective of the festival, which is so cool,” Sedore said. “There are so few places at SU that are designed for having these kinds of events so it’s just really awesome to have a place where I can celebrate and meet other people like me.”

3 responses to “All-inclusive feminist festival brings people together”

  1. By the theme of “feminist” and the name LadyFest… is this bringing people together and inclusive of white heterosexual males? I don’t think so. By the way, think of the liberal firestorm if evil white males ever had a similar event targeting them.The oppression, bigotry, and sexism would be just too much to take.. shut ’em down!

  2. Spoken like someone who has never been to LadyFest! Why don’t you come and see what it’s all about? I’ve been proud to be a part of the previous two years, and I assure you, celebrating minority segments of the population doesn’t mean we’ve excluded our white, hetero brothers! They’re always more than welcome to come enjoy the wonderful music, art, and performances that they might not ordinarily be able to find or partake in, in their ordinary experiences! Meg and Cara have really done an amazing job welcoming everyone – we would even welcome you!

    And if you after you truly feel oppressed and the need to immerse yourself in white, male dominated art and entertainment, please 1.) Take at least a second to ponder if perhaps this may be what women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals feel like on a regular basis, and then 2.) engage in literally just about any other art/music/culture event in the greater Syracuse area!

    I do hope to see you there! <3

  3. No, spoken like someone who simply reads “all inclusive”, yet clearly states that it isn’t (at least from a marking / communication angle).

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