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Michfest - a Celebration

Even this gay man gets misty-eyed at this. I mourn for what was taken away from my Michfest sisters.

"The Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival: Legacies

Have you been on the land? If you have experienced late night drum circles, porta-janes, granola, and naked women in body paint, then Welcome Home, Sister.

So reads the public welcoming message on a FaceBook page related to the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, also known as MWMF, MichFest, or Fest.

The final Fest took place in 2015. Even though only six years have passed since its closing, MichFest’s image among lesbians who never attended has begun to acquire a misty aura of unreality, like a wonderful dream, a near religious experience, or an Amazon myth that exists only in the heart. Sacred women’s land.

An entire city run by and for lesbian feminists. Utopia revealed. An Eden—built by Eves."

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by Anonymousreply 80May 4, 2021 11:05 PM

MichFest's insistence that boundaries be drawn (or should I say stated?) and that the truth be stated now looks incredibly prescient.

by Anonymousreply 1May 1, 2021 9:28 PM

I’m wiping the tears away with my vagina cape.

by Anonymousreply 2May 1, 2021 9:38 PM

I fucken loved those threads. DL at its cunty, hysterical self.

by Anonymousreply 3May 1, 2021 9:39 PM

Long live Sara of the Vagina Cape.

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by Anonymousreply 4May 1, 2021 9:43 PM

Just imagine the millions of pounds of nutloaf consumed there.

by Anonymousreply 5May 1, 2021 9:45 PM

Nan, Nan, Nan! Sweet Nan. We've missed you so! I hope you are still doing you!

by Anonymousreply 6May 1, 2021 9:47 PM

Who can forget all the drama about GETTING there? Carpools, catfights and catastrophe!

by Anonymousreply 7May 1, 2021 9:51 PM

labia labia labia labia labia labia labia labia labia labia labia

by Anonymousreply 8May 1, 2021 9:51 PM

This entire thread is triggering and must be shut down immediately!!

by Anonymousreply 9May 1, 2021 9:53 PM

While the DL threads and the Michfest message boards were completely hilarious, I do find it really sad so many inoffensive women just trying to have some fun together had it all ruined by a load of aggressive men in dresses.

by Anonymousreply 10May 1, 2021 9:54 PM

^^ now we get to the true purpose of starting this thread.

#SoTransparent

by Anonymousreply 11May 1, 2021 9:58 PM

R11 I didn't start this thread.

by Anonymousreply 12May 1, 2021 10:01 PM

Mmmmmm

by Anonymousreply 13May 1, 2021 10:05 PM

Why was it shut down?

I only started here in June 2015 and didn't really understand what was going on.

by Anonymousreply 14May 1, 2021 10:06 PM

R14 A lot of these Michfest womyn were victims of sexual assaults/incest/trauma and men in dresses starting participating in the fest, and doing stupid things like exposing themselves in front of already traumatized women, etc.

by Anonymousreply 15May 1, 2021 10:10 PM

Making fun of MichFest is literal violence against womyn! You're basically a wyfe beater!

by Anonymousreply 16May 1, 2021 10:12 PM

No you muppet at R16. We loved making gentle fun of our sisters.

by Anonymousreply 17May 1, 2021 10:15 PM

I’m lucky enough to to be a silent, Honorary Michfest Groupie. My best friend is a lez who attended for decades, gave me maps of the grounds, etc. I was fascinated... it sounded so sweet!

She even offered to sneak me in for a day in a burka, and explain to everyone I was new to the west and afraid to talk (!)

I love my lesbian sisters!! They themselves laugh about the dramas at Michfest a lot.

by Anonymousreply 18May 1, 2021 10:34 PM

I miss lesbians. Everyone seems to be “queer” these days.

by Anonymousreply 19May 1, 2021 10:37 PM

Life was simpler back then.

by Anonymousreply 20May 1, 2021 10:40 PM

Do you think they miss you? I don’t.

by Anonymousreply 21May 1, 2021 10:40 PM

Though the T stuff was clearly an issue and was maybe the final straw, I think Michfest was winding down. Attendance was much reduced from its glory years, down to just a couple of thousand at the end.

by Anonymousreply 22May 1, 2021 10:52 PM

An entire generation of womyn will never know the joys of making a 500-pound nutloaf for their sisters, the plaintive question of Fat Womon on Garbage Detail, and the Year of Shigella.

by Anonymousreply 23May 1, 2021 10:59 PM

[quote]R22 Michfest was winding down. Attendance was much reduced from its glory years, down to just a couple of thousand at the end.

Yes. When it started there weren’t so many places for lesbians to meet up, and it was harder to be out.

As the decades passed younger womyn were like, “Why do I have to go to a festival to be with lesbians?”

by Anonymousreply 24May 1, 2021 11:01 PM

Go dilate R11.

by Anonymousreply 25May 1, 2021 11:06 PM

The Michfest threads were some good times.

by Anonymousreply 26May 1, 2021 11:19 PM

Burke’s womyn??!! They’d be all over that

by Anonymousreply 27May 1, 2021 11:24 PM

*burka’d womyn

by Anonymousreply 28May 1, 2021 11:27 PM

Your hatred of womyn is killing us. Stop the misangy.

by Anonymousreply 29May 1, 2021 11:32 PM

And that bitch who was charging for crazy ass stoned rides to michfest, I hope she's okay, and driving for Uber.

by Anonymousreply 30May 1, 2021 11:47 PM

[quote] r22 Though the T stuff was clearly an issue and was maybe the final straw...

I’ll have ta ask about the names/specifics, but trans roots go back to the beginning of Michfest. It was nothing new. One of the first sound engineers for the concerts was born male. Some attendees were mad that he had learned his craft and been successful in the music industry due to male privilege, supposedly taking education and jobs away from women back in the day by virtue of being male. But most of the organizers and crew were like, “Well, she’s here NOW. We need an experienced sound engineer!!”

But the thing is, just like trans people are a tiny minority overall... they were an even tinier minority at Michfest. It’s not like the place was an invaded, blood drenched [italic]battleground[/italic]. (Well, except when menstrual cycles synced up.)

by Anonymousreply 31May 2, 2021 12:22 AM

I think at the end it was more like hundreds, not thousands.

Some other subculture sort of events are shrinking, things like IML, bear events and the like. Younger gays just aren't meeting up with other gays in that same way.

Only pride and circuit parties have really stayed alive - pride because it's become commercialized and broad, and circuits because there will always be an endless supply of young narcissists who want to get strung out, dance and fuck.

by Anonymousreply 32May 2, 2021 12:51 AM

Mitchfest was very early '70s feminist "Our Bodies, Ourselves" - it had a lot of lesbian hippie energy. And Womyn's Music was a real thing back then.

I think the nearest equivalent for men was GNI (Gay Naturists International) for men, but it, too has been winding down. I went for a few years. It's mostly bears 40+. It had none of the Political-Mystical mindset of Michfest, but was just 800-900 gay men hanging out naked in a campground in the Poconos for a week. Some of it was a lot of fun - kayaking in the lake and swimming in two hugh outdoor pools, but unless you made friends with other attendees, it was rather lonely and boring. But the rates kept climbing and younger men had no interest in attending.

by Anonymousreply 33May 2, 2021 3:00 AM

I always liked those ladies. they just wanted to have their thing. It was fun to make fun of them, but it was never about hate. it was just a thing. And deep down, I think we all got it. sometimes you just need to get away from men. Don't blame them. it's just a thing. And we never resented it, really.

by Anonymousreply 34May 2, 2021 3:32 AM

You can get the book. It even has the nut loaf recipe.

[quote] A special collection of first hand accounts, community statements, poetry and journal entries written by the women and girls who attended the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival from 1976 until the festival's ending in 2015.

There’s also a nice, very evocative photography collection done by one member... but it may have been privately printed to keep it from being bought by scummy males who just want to whack off over the imagery.

[italic]Man on the land!

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by Anonymousreply 35May 2, 2021 4:15 PM

[quote]ut it may have been privately printed to keep it from being bought by scummy males who just want to whack off over the imagery.

Oh, honey, get over yourself.

No man wants to masturbate to the fat, smelly, hairy dykes of Michfest.

by Anonymousreply 36May 2, 2021 4:16 PM

Don’t be mean. If you don’t grasp just how many straight men want to sexualize lesbians, you really are no ally to them.

by Anonymousreply 37May 2, 2021 4:34 PM
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by Anonymousreply 38May 2, 2021 4:34 PM

[quote]Don’t be mean.

Are you new here, cunt?

[quote]If you don’t grasp just how many straight men want to sexualize lesbians, you really are no ally to them.

No man -- NONE -- want to sexualize that dogs that attend Michfest.

That's ALL in your own mind

by Anonymousreply 39May 2, 2021 4:37 PM

People who ask "Are you new here?' haven't been here long enough to post.

I want to know as a fat womyn will I be of help on garbage patrol?

by Anonymousreply 40May 2, 2021 4:41 PM

Well, you really MUST be new here, R40.

It was a fat WOMON who wanted to know if she'd be useful on garbage detail.

by Anonymousreply 41May 2, 2021 4:42 PM

I want to know if R39 is as ugly as they come across on a message board.

by Anonymousreply 42May 2, 2021 4:44 PM

I'm ugly as sin.

Though still better looking than any Festee.

*kisses*

by Anonymousreply 43May 2, 2021 4:45 PM

Yeah, I'm brand spanking. That's why I quoted it exactly, dumbass.

by Anonymousreply 44May 2, 2021 4:45 PM

Whar link for greatest Michfest thread? I'm new-ish and also lazy.

by Anonymousreply 45May 2, 2021 4:57 PM

Girls, GIRLS....!

This has descended to a very UN Michfest level of squabbling and petty judgments.

by Anonymousreply 46May 2, 2021 5:23 PM

We can sell tee shirts in solidarity!

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by Anonymousreply 47May 2, 2021 5:32 PM

r47 Man in the shirt!

by Anonymousreply 48May 2, 2021 5:43 PM

[quote]This has descended to a very UN Michfest level of squabbling and petty judgments.

There is nothing more Michfest than squabbling and petty judgments.

by Anonymousreply 49May 2, 2021 5:47 PM

There are many. Google “Michfest Datalounge”

For this one you have to understand that the Womyn of Michfest had a discussion board amongst themselves elsewhere that some DLers would lurk in:

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by Anonymousreply 50May 2, 2021 8:15 PM

I like this one:

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by Anonymousreply 51May 2, 2021 8:16 PM

r51: I would watch every one of those episodes.

by Anonymousreply 52May 3, 2021 12:13 AM

Has Dana Rivers been sentenced yet?

by Anonymousreply 53May 3, 2021 12:26 AM

I am trans and have always found lesbian spaces welcoming, although I was usually with my lesbian friends and am passable. The circle of transwomen I hung with in (my small city) later were pretty well known and respected in lesbian circles. Most bars in our city were mixed, so almost inevitably your friends included the spectrum of lgbt people. I guess in smaller cities you don’t get to specialize. Regarding Michfest, If there were weird transpeople (most transpeople would not be willingly going naked in public) getting nude at the Michfest event why didn’t security just kick them out? Certainly though, I wouldn’t go anywhere that I am unwelcome. I think the contraversy is just kind of sad.

by Anonymousreply 54May 3, 2021 1:07 AM

^ They all hate you, ya deluded man.

by Anonymousreply 55May 3, 2021 1:11 AM

[quote] I do find it really sad so many inoffensive women just trying to have some fun together

Honey, you're completely misremembering through a rosy haze.

What they were REALLY trying to do was create strict rules and boundaries for one another.

by Anonymousreply 56May 3, 2021 1:32 AM

Right wing troll.^^

by Anonymousreply 57May 3, 2021 1:35 AM

[quote] Regarding Michfest, If there were weird transpeople (most transpeople would not be willingly going naked in public) getting nude at the Michfest event why didn’t security just kick them out?

They weren't getting naked--the problem is that they would go there at all, and that drove the Michfesters INSANE.

They were obsessed with rules at MichFest, so they literally had a private security force called thge Border Patrol who would go around staring at attendees to make sure they were wimmen-born-wimmen.

If they weren't, the Border Patrol cops would literally point at them and start shotuing, "MAN ON THE LAND! MAN ON THE LAND!" until they were escorted off the premises.

by Anonymousreply 58May 3, 2021 1:36 AM

R58 Aren't women still allowed spaces free from men?

by Anonymousreply 59May 3, 2021 1:37 AM

Rainsong, I have stated my boundaries. Please respect them.

I have just stated my boundaries again.

by Anonymousreply 60May 3, 2021 1:38 AM

[quote]R54 I am trans and have always found lesbian spaces welcoming, although I was usually with my lesbian friends and am passable.

My lesbian friends from Michfest were not traumatized by the scattering of trans people there. (I’ll ask them how many they even encountered over the years.) But from what I gather, the long-standing attendees that I know adopted a “don’t ask don’t tell” approach.

[quote] If there were weird transpeople (most transpeople would not be willingly going naked in public) getting nude at the Michfest event why didn’t security just kick them out?

It never happened. Not only would security have kicked them out, the pre-op trans attendee might have been beat bloody by some of the butches.

The inciting incident I heard of was when some attendees were sitting in a circle and sharing in some workshop, and one woman could see up a trans person’s skirt, and got upset.

I’ll get the full story on this.

by Anonymousreply 61May 3, 2021 2:11 AM

[quote] If they weren't, the Border Patrol cops would literally point at them and start shotuing, "MAN ON THE LAND! MAN ON THE LAND!" until they were escorted off the premises.

That's kind of funny, R58. But if that's true, it sounds like they had the problem of male invading under control. So why did it have to shut down?

by Anonymousreply 62May 3, 2021 2:11 AM

[quote] [R58] Aren't women still allowed spaces free from men?—ya dickhead

Oh fuck off, cuntface.

I never said nor even implied I agreed nor disagreed with what they did or believed. I'm just reporting the facts of what happened.

by Anonymousreply 63May 3, 2021 2:24 AM

R62 Ask Dana Rivers.

R63 You are a regular Barbara WaaWaa.

by Anonymousreply 64May 3, 2021 2:43 AM

Because all the bitchy transjacked LGBTQ groups put such pressure on the lesbians running it--plus threats from the trans people (don't forget a transwoman had murdered two of their participants a few years back--that they gave up.

by Anonymousreply 65May 3, 2021 2:55 AM

No.... as mentioned several times above, attendance was down to 2,500. Newer generations did not need Michfest like their forebears did.

That’s why the founders wound it up. It was too much work to do it considering the diminishing attendance.

by Anonymousreply 66May 3, 2021 3:00 AM

R66 Can smell your lies from here.

by Anonymousreply 67May 3, 2021 3:31 AM

I've never been to Michfest but I did see the Transparent episode with the Indigo Girls at the topless women's festival with Angelica Huston and "Man on the land!"

by Anonymousreply 68May 3, 2021 3:36 AM

And I knew the lyrics to "Hammer and a Nail" better than Amy Landecker

by Anonymousreply 69May 3, 2021 3:38 AM

R58 Was that the episode where Solways compared lesbians to Nazis?

by Anonymousreply 70May 3, 2021 3:48 AM

R61 thanks for the info. I don’t blame the woman who got flipped out because of the gross weirdo not wearing underwear. I wouldn’t want to see that either.

by Anonymousreply 71May 3, 2021 11:20 AM

[quote]r67 Can smell your lies from here.

That I’m not really Catherine Sloper??

Ya got me!

(Actually, I wonder how she’d react if she suddenly woke up at Michfest.)

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by Anonymousreply 72May 3, 2021 3:52 PM

[quote]r71 thanks for the info. I don’t blame the woman who got flipped out because of the gross weirdo not wearing underwear. I wouldn’t want to see that either.

I don’t know that the trans attendee wasn’t wearing panties. The claim was just that the other festie saw up her skirt. (Why she was even looking is perhaps a matter for a separate discussion.)

by Anonymousreply 73May 3, 2021 3:55 PM

Didn't a load of trans protesters (who most likely had no wish to ever set foot in the place) set up some kind of camp outside the gates because they weren't allowed in?

by Anonymousreply 74May 3, 2021 4:00 PM

Yes, because they have to fucking ruin everything.

by Anonymousreply 75May 3, 2021 6:59 PM

You can’t ruin something awful to begin with.

by Anonymousreply 76May 4, 2021 6:47 AM

It must have been a fabulous venue for the lesbian ladies. A 40 year event and then the trannies arrived.

by Anonymousreply 77May 4, 2021 9:23 PM

Was it really that famous? I only knew about it from Datalounge discussing it every year.

by Anonymousreply 78May 4, 2021 9:27 PM

No, it was really irrelevant. Attendance was only a few thousand by the end.

by Anonymousreply 79May 4, 2021 9:37 PM

Iirc, Tracy Chapman came out of Michfest. It was such a great place for new women's music.

by Anonymousreply 80May 4, 2021 11:05 PM
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