Utopia Festival at W2 Storyeum in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)

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Utopia Festival at W2 Storyeum in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)

March 5, 2011 ahamedia Leave a comment Go to comments

Utopia Festival

at the W2 Storyeum.

It’s the first annual women’s digital culture festival, one of only a few in all of North America, and includes an all-day workshop/conference, mobile dance party and evening showcase, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

This is shaping up to be one of the most important musical events of the year in Vancouver.

During the daytime conference <http://www.creativetechnology.org/page/utopia-conference> , women will get the chance to learn DJ/VJ’ing from some of the top women digital artists in the world and learn about the logistics of producing music, getting press, collaborating and more. The opening address and respondents panel will address barriers to entry for women in digital music <http://www.granvilleonline.ca/arts-and-culture/festivals/utopia-women-djs-vancouver-w2> .

Then at night the whole place blows up, as men and women are invited <http://www.creativetechnology.org/page/showcase-1> for a keynote address by Berlin-based electroclash gender-bender Peaches at 8pm with performances by throat singer/electro artist Tanya Tagaq, local hiphop artists JB The First Lady and Crunch, and cello prodigy/electro composer Chris Derksen (plus live readings by Vancouver writers).

Then… the showcase at 10:30pm: 30+ female digital artists performing live PA, DJ and VJ sets in 3 rooms at the W2 Storyeum.

Peaches goes on at 1am.

It’ll be the biggest lineup of female electronic artists ever to hit a Canadian stage, including: Peaches, Isis Salam (Thunderheist), Betti Forde, B-Traits, The Librarian, Lynx, Zenobia, She, Blondtron, Lady Lane, Tank Girl, Miss M, Just Sheila, The Square Root of Evil, JNL, Miss Innocent, and DJ Tapes. Visual Media artists include VJ Electrabelle, Julie Gendron, Sebnem Ozpeta, Claudia Medina, and Krista Lomax. (19+)

In the middle of the day, Utopia will storm the Drive with female-focused music for the Mobile Dance Party <http://www.creativetechnology.org/page/mobile-dance-party> ! This is a free, inclusive event (read: co-ed), meeting at Broadway Station at 12:30pm. W2 has launched crowdsourcing project to collect songs by 100 female artists using the Twitter hashtag #w2utopia100 <http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23w2utopia100>, which will be played from bike/shopping cart-mounted speakers.

Tickets <http://utopiafestival.eventbrite.com/> at Beatstreet, Little Sister’s, Puff, Zulu, People’s Coop Bookstore, The Fall, W2 and online.

Would appreciate any help you can give to spread the word on this. It’s all completely grassroots with no funding or grants, with any net proceeds going to support W2’s 2nd annual Girls Creative Tech Summer Camp this summer.

Here’s the FB link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197864190224498