Loud Women Fest returns to Halifax for its second year

Cities everywhere, including Halifax, New York, London and Tokyo, have one thing in common: they’re all home to Loud Women. Since 2015, the festival’s mandate is to put more women on stage and turn up the volume.

The festival returns to Halifax for its second consecutive year on Oct. 24.  

Halifax was the first Canadian city Loud Women debuted in, and the only Canadian city on last year’s schedule. This year, Halifax is one of 13 global cities to host a Loud Women festival, including Toronto.

Cassie Fox, the founder of Loud Women says, “I’m keen that Loud Women works to help these local communities become part of a wider international Loud Women organization.”

Based in London, Loud Women is a non-profit organization whose festivals are backed by a team of volunteers in each city.

Fox entered the music scene in Nova Scotia as an invited speaker for Nova Scotia Music Week, a four-day festival that features workshops, networking events and live music.During this time, she fell in love with the community and the people. 

Fox says the event was a rich source for finding new musicians. She continued to keep a relationship with bands she met during the week. Through these connections, she brought Loud Women to Halifax.

CKDU promoted the festival this year by featuring Loud Women on its radio station after the festival’s call for volunteers.

“It’s a lovely example of how people in Nova Scotia are just brilliant,” says Fox. “It’s really cool how the local community is getting behind Loud Women Fest and welcoming it.” 

Local punk band Amygdala Hijack is one of 10 performers included in this year’s lineup. Last year, Maya Taraschi, the band’s drummer, purchased a ticket and joined the sold-out crowd at Propeller Arcade.

“It was really nice walking in, being in a space designed to lift up women and non-men and knowing everyone there has the same values you do,” says Taraschi.

This year, she’s upgraded to the stage.  Taraschi hasn’t forgotten what got her there. “It’s so important to put non-men artists on stage,” says Taraschi. “The difference is seeing there are other people like me or playing the genres that I like to play.”

Penelope Stevens of the band Penny & the Pits, who are performing at the event, says the festival aims to create a platform and autonomy for femme musicians.

“For a while it felt like people were just making space for women but not necessarily listening to the music or thinking about it critically,” they say. “It’s continuing to expand the horizons for what women can do.”

“This event’s going to be crazy, it’s going to be packed.”

Fox says she originally organized Halifax’s festival to put on gigs for her band at the time.

“It snowballed from there. I never set out for any of this to happen,” she says.

Fox says Loud Women helps to promote femme and queer music artists. She looks for bands that want to be a part of it by getting involved and lifting each other up to help spread festivals to more cities.

“I really believe that if everyone helps make everyone else sound louder, then the collective amplification is bigger,” says Fox.