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The Check-In – August 2020
The Check-In is a weekly videohang/chat/networking session for women, trans, and non-binary folks in the music industry in August, 2020
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Vancouver Folk Music Festival
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival (Vancouver, BC) July 17-19, is a Canadian cultural institution; a unique community-based celebration internationally renowned for presenting the finest traditional and contemporary folk and roots music from around the world. Each year, the Festival draws more than 40,000 enthusiastic attendees to beautiful Jericho Beach Park. Two and even three generations of families join friends and fellow community members to experience the music and culture of more than 40 international, national, and local artists. They come together to dance and to enjoy food and children’s activities – and the magical ambience of the Festival. The Vancouver Folk Music Festival has received an ‘A’ grade on the…
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Ness Creek Festival
Ness Creek Cultural and Recreational Society presents the Ness Creek Festival (Saskatoon, SK) July 16-19, is reputed as “The best time you can have in one weekend!” Four Magical Days celebrating Music, Arts, Community and Ecology in the breathtaking setting of the Boreal Forest. Over 30 Main Stage performances, Workshop stage, Eco-Village, Artisan Market, Community Kitchen, Children’s Area, Drum and Dance Circle, Community Sharing Circle, After Hours Tent, and more. Immerse yourself in the Magic of Ness while staying in our rustic campgrounds. The best part is that camping is free with a weekend pass! Feel the sunshine on your face, dance to the beat of live music, breathe the fresh…
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Workshop: What Bookers Want – Band Promo 101 ONLINE
BAND PROMO 101 – A workshop to help you stop pissing off bookers and promoters and get more gigs. Sunday, April 4, 12:30pm – 4:30pm Sadleir House Lecture Hall, 751 George Street North
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A short list of women and gender non-conforming Canadian artists
ETA: Because this is awesome, we’re creating an accessible database for Trans folks, Non-Gender-Binary folks, and Women to add themselves and/or their bands so that bookers can find them. We launched it in Winter 2020; you can check it out here (and also add yourself or your band!). All of the artists in this short list are also in the database! ETA 2: When this post was originally published in Spring 2018 on our old website, it generated 138 replies from members of the community, listing more than 600 artists and bands. We’ve collected this information in the database above, and are looking for volunteer to help flesh out the…
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2017 Canadian Festival Report Card
The 2017 Festival Report Card is here! For the past twenty years, the music industry has seen its stages dominated by men in most genres and scenes. With the exceptions of the occasional women-focused festivals, like Lilith Fair, women have tended to see very little representation on stages, and nowhere is that more noticeable than at a festival, where sometimes hours can pass before a woman, a racialized person, or an LGBTQ, Two-Spirited, or Gender Non-Binary person walks on stage as a member of a band. With that in mind, we’ve been tallying up the numbers, and are presenting them below. We’d like to give a huge thank you to…
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2016 Canadian Festival Report Card
For the past twenty years, the music industry has seen its stages dominated by men in most genres and scenes. With the exceptions of the occasional women-focused festivals, like Lilith Fair, women have tended to see very little representation on stages, and nowhere is that more noticeable than at a festival, where sometimes hours can pass before a woman, a racialized person, or a member of the LGBTQ community walks on stage as a member of a band. With that in mind, we’ve been tallying up the numbers, and are presenting them below. This list is presented in the spirit of information-sharing – often, bookers and Artistic Directors don’t realize…
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NXNE PRESENTS A SAUSAGE FESTIVAL
From a piece I wrote for Electric City Magazine: “The Canadian music industry is a diverse, varied place, but you wouldn’t know it from the endless parade of white guys with guitars wanking across the festival stages and conference panels of the nation. Over the past month, NXNE have been releasing the lineup for their Portlands festival, and the list, while appearing more racially diverse with the most recent release, is still very dude-heavy. With three women-fronted bands and one genderqueer artist out of 16 total acts released so far, I have to ask: where the fuck are the women, NorthBy?” Read the rest at Electric City Magazine.
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Some thoughts about – and a good, green idea for – Music Submissions
There was a time, 15 years ago, when the wealth of CDs that suddenly started coming my way, as a full-time booker at a dive bar, was exciting and fun. Opening packages mailed from across the country was exciting – who knew what fabulous undiscovered gem was lurking inside that yellow padded envelope? Now I find myself looking at CDs – or any physical media music submissions – with a sense of weariness. The thrill of discovery is still strong, but it’s sometimes overwhelmed by the knowledge that every CD and paper package represents a use of resources that isn’t very smart or justifiable. I know there are some bookers/DJs/industry…
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Music City – A strategy
The points I’ve included below – headlined ‘A Strategy for Music Peterborough‘ – was created with my hometown in mind, but swap out a few names and organizations and this would be useful in any city to frame the way you approach different sectors with a view to creating a cohesive push to highlight music (or, I think, almost any local art or cultural highlight) and create a Music City mentality. I’ve made a few edits from the original document to make explicit the sort of things that I take as a given, but which aren’t obvious to everyone (like gender parity, inclusion of racialized people, good working conditions, etc.). A…
