Queer, Female, and Transgender Musicians Finally Take Center Stage at Not Enough Fest

All photos by Karen Green

This article originally appeared on Noisey Canada.

“The sexism [here] is breathtaking at times,” says Stacy Burnett, a touring musician and one of Not Enough Fest’s main organizers. She’s talking about Alberta’s traditionally conservative capital, Edmonton which is—according to a 2014 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives—the worst city in Canada to be a woman. However, Not Enough Fest, a volunteer-run festival featuring exclusively female, queer, and transgender musicians, is trying to change that label.

Modeled after a similarly named event in Portland, NEF is based on the premise that there is “not enough” female, queer, and trans representation in the music scene, which is a pretty obvious fact in most cities. More than a concert, it’s a strategic series of workshops, community outreach programs, fundraisers, and gear drives aimed at making music accessible to people who have been left on the sidelines. “Playing in bands was so important to me, but so was feeling comfortable and having a sense of community. So it just didn’t make any sense to me why those two areas were so at odds with each other,” Burnett says. “When the opportunity to help organize this arose, it was just a perfect combination of the two things that I cared so much about.”

NEF also raises awareness of the endless micro-aggressions thrown around in male-dominated indie music scenes, which Burnett knows all too well. In ten years of playing in bands, she’s heard more than her share of condescending comments. She’s had guys take gear out of her hands when she’s setting up. And then there’s the charming “Take off your clothes” refrain. She can shred with the best, but that hasn’t stopped some men from critiquing her down to her facial expressions. “They would be like, ‘Hey that was really great, but just so you know, when you mess up you shouldn’t make that face,’” Burnett says.

Organizers braced for opposition in the lead-up to the festival’s 2015 debut as it shook the scene in Alberta's capital city, bringing discussions of privilege and safe spaces to everyone’s lips. Some decried the event as hypocritical because of the notion that an exclusive festival would only foster a more inclusive scene. And then there was the men who suddenly felt left out. Facebook fights would then break out on the event page. “Encouraging people to come together in those communities and make bands, make art and make change is great,” one commenter wrote. “Demanding that someone be prioritized due to their gender or sexual orientation is not.” Others called the event “stupid” and a “witch hunt.”

Potential bandmates meet at a recent Not Enough Fest mixer

In spite of this, NEF would end up an overwhelming success. Seventeen new acts launched and registered to play, shattering all expectations, and allies turned up in droves to donate gear, money and volunteer time. In February, last year, the modest McKernan Community League hall was lined up out the door for the dry, all-ages event. A year later, acts like Burnett’s pop-punk band Feed Dogs, rapper PersuAsian, power-pop trio Labour, and experimental folk artist Conjure are becoming local favorites.

Nicole McDonal, who quit playing music as a teen after enduring patronizing comments from her own male bandmates, bought a drum machine to join last year’s fest. Now she’s an organizer and performer for the 2016 edition, which will take place over two days in May at an undetermined location. McDonal oversees a nine-page document of Edmonton bands featuring female, queer or trans musicians—a list that could not have existed a year ago in the city that has produced global stars like Mac DeMarco—and urges promoters to use it. “Edmonton has a really big music community and a lot of people have come out of Edmonton. But the only people we were producing were cis white men,” she says. “So I think it’s really important for us to put out into the world what we actually have. And what we have is incredible.” Uncomfortable conversations that started last year have changed attitudes dramatically in Edmonton’s music scene. Burnett recalls the first time she saw audience members collectively kick out a man who was acting aggressively at a show. “I felt safety and comfort, which was a brand new feeling,” she says.

That sudden revelation of safety is a feeling most men will never fully grasp, but more are starting to value. Key Edmonton promoters Craig Martell and Daniel Lenz say NEF has helped create scenes that are “hyper aware” and helped push out “bro culture,” while engaging Edmonton’s neglected underage musicians. The shift has also bred challenges. A vociferous demand to have female, queer or trans artists on every bill is outpacing the growth of new acts in a scene that is still predominantly cis male, which can put promoters in a bind and has left some musicians concerned they are being tokenized. Some fear being ostracized for slip-ups that might upset NEF and its supporters. Mel MacDonald backs the overall aim of NEF, but was left with a bad taste after volunteering and performing last year.

“Having a more inclusive scene is extremely important, but a lot of people feel like they’re walking on eggshells when they’re dealing with the fest,” she says. MacDonald says herself and others felt that allies, including their hetero male partners, were unwelcome at the event. Some fear being ostracized for slip-ups that might upset NEF, and MacDonald has been particularly turned off by organizers calling people out over personal status updates on social media in at least one instance. “I don’t envy the task that the organizers take on; trying to be extremely inclusionary ends up excluding a lot people which is the opposite of what NEF is about. It’s about giving women and queer people an outlet, a place to say, ‘Hey everyone! You can do this! Let’s all make music together.’” But the demand for safe and inclusive spaces has been heard loud and clear.

Edmonton experimental band, Slains performs at McKernan Community League

When punk band The Casualties was booked to play Edmonton’s Union Hall last summer, promoter Ryan Walraven was slammed with demands to cancel the show over sexual assault allegations against the band’s singer. Some punks stuck up for the Casualties but Walraven backed down, canceled the gig and staged a fundraiser for the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton. Disastrously, the bands bailed on the fundraiser and got the Casualties to play a secret house show instead. According to Walraven, he was “livid” when he saw photos of the show the next day. While he initially came out on the losing side of the debate, the promoter said he is careful now to research every band’s history before bringing them to Edmonton, to ensure all audience members can feel safe at his shows. “There was a massive reaction from all the people in the punk scene and metal scene, and basically the Edmonton scene all over,” Walraven says. “I think that was a big eye-opener that the Edmonton scene is one that really puts its foot down.”

Organizers acknowledge they are navigating a tricky space between being a radical activist festival and a music festival, and there will always be pushback from both sides. But when all-male bands comprise 75 percent of 2015’s summer music fest circuit and people of different sexual orientations are frequently overlooked, it’s clear that initiatives like NEF have an important role to play in diversifying the music industry. “I was used to fighting to be heard in the scene for so long,” Burnett says. “I think that people are a little more used to the idea. It happened, it’s successful, it feels at this point more like an Edmonton staple now.”

*Not Enough Fest is still open to new performers and volunteers for this year’s show.

Kevin Maimann is a writer based in Edmonton. Follow Kevin Maimann on Twitter.