Ladyfest 2017 - a Shanghai collective of female empowerment
Firstly, aside from a totally separate blog I started up relating to my new business venture, itâs been such a long time since I wrote anything on this. Remarkably, Iâve never considered closing it down not withstanding that my tumblring has been lacking of late (lacking by approximately 2 years or so?) but nonetheless, itâs nice to dust it off and bring something new to the table! This blog was always primarily something I maintained to cover the music scene here in China as well as other ramblings I had on my mind at any given time. And a lot has happened in the past 2 years. So without making any grand promises to myself that Iâll do anything close to the amount of blogging I did in a bygone era, itâs quite therapeutic to blow out some cobwebs once in a while!
Why all of a sudden this unexpected return to the blogosphere? Â Well as it turns out, I was just simply asked if I would be happy to do a blog to help push the forthcoming Ladyfest taking place here in Shanghai in just a couple of weeksâ time. Someone still had my name down on a list of bloggers here - so Iâm fairly flattered that I would still be requested to do something despite how long it has been!
So what is Ladyfest? Put simply, it is a collective celebrating female empowerment around International Womenâs Day aimed principally at promoting gender equality. The annual event draws members of the local community together to support freedom of self expression through a variety of different events, which range from live music, comedy, workshops and more. It is now entering into itâs 4th year in Shanghai and has been a roaring success to date. Â Here is a collection of images demonstrating what they have delivered over the past few years:
It goes without saying that this particular shot has to get a particular mention - it is none other than the now defunct Gou Shen doing their bit to support the initiative. Given that their former lead singer, the highly personable and affable Lenz Ma, left Shanghai in 2014 to go to pursue studies in Australia, Iâm guessing this event must have taken place around March of that same year. I believe the Ladyfest organisers hosted this event at Uptown Records? If this is inaccurate, I will duly correct that (it could also be Logo too). These days bassist Mian Mian is also based outside of Shanghai, in The Netherlands precisely, while drummer Dario is now in Beijing (only guitarist Gil, aka čćŻ is still here and now playing guitar with Round Eye). Anyways, I digress - but the point is that Shanghai certainly isnât lacking in musical talent among both genders! Examples of bands through the years who have shown that include Boys Climbing Ropes, Air Walker, Tinderbox and these days (self promotion coming up here), my own new band Hogchoker, co-fronted by Hong Kongese social butterfly Karen Gam Lin Chung). But, worth showing off a Gou Shen track as part of the piece here - reform guys, you were absolutely brilliant and my band XXYY had many many fun nights sharing bills with you!
<a href="http://goushen.bandcamp.com/album/dio-cane">Dio Cane by Goushen ççĽ</a>
The Ladyfest event for this year is taking place on Saturday March 11th from 12 noon to 12 midnight at the Suzhou Creek Warehouse. There is still time to submit a proposal to participate in the event, and that is open until next Friday March 3rd - anyone wishing to do so should contact them directly at [email protected]! Or scan the QR code below to get them on wechat!
