A month of Queer Pride festivities will conclude Saturday with Lesbopalooza, a music festival featuring several lesbian artists from around the country.
The University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance organized the festival, which will be the first of its kind in the Northwest, according to LGBTA co-director Gabrielle Hendel.
By sponsoring Lesbopalooza, the LGBTA hopes to present the University as an environment that promotes diversity. It also hopes to place Eugene and the Northwest’s alternative music scene in the national spotlight, Hendel said.
“I’m hoping that it will make Eugene a hotbed for alternative and progressive music,” Hendel said. “It kind of shows that Eugene and the Northwest are capable of pulling together a show with so many different people who have really influenced the course of the queer rights movement.”
Among the performers will be Alix Dobkin, The Murmurs, Sarah Dougher, Madigan Shive, The Deb Cleveland Band, Tracy + the Plastics, The Culottes and Stephan. With its broad assortment of artists, Lesbopalooza offers a variety of music from a cross-section of generations and genres.
Dobkin, one of the festival’s main draws, is known as the first openly lesbian musician. She came out in 1972 and has since been such a mainstay in lesbian culture that she has taken on the title “head lesbian.”
No stranger to all-lesbian music affairs, the San Francisco resident helped found the Michigan Women’s Music Festival and has performed in several Lesbopaloozas, including the first one in New York in 1994.
“I love Lesbopalooza,” Dobkin said. “It’s a great celebration of femaleness and a great cultural celebration. It’s a pure, refined woman energy. It’s not your typical, run-of-the-mill, corporate mainstream pap.”
Senior linguistics major Hawley Mathieson who will attend Saturday’s show, agrees.
“I’m really excited about the show,” Mathieson said. “I think it’s an awesome opportunity to be able to attend an event with all these women-focused bands.”
The Murmurs, considered a co-headliner on the Lesbopalooza ticket, is a well-known duo, especially among the lesbian community. For one, The Murmurs are signed with a major record company in MCA.
For another, one of the members is the girlfriend of alternative/pop megastar k.d. lang, bringing added attention to the group.
With their catchy, pop-influenced sound, The Murmurs appeal to a younger crowd, while Dobkin appeals to the older women in the lesbian community, Hendel said.
Lesbopalooza’s range of music, which will include electronica, punk, indie, folk, funk, blues and queer-core, should further broaden the audience.
“Hopefully we’ll be getting a huge variety from all across our community,” Hendel said. “I think that living in a lesbian or queer community, you kind of search out music that you can relate to and that has a message that you identify with. But also, it’s just good music, and I know a lot of people who aren’t queer who are going to it just to hear some good music.”