Despite recent government opposition to festivals, brand new heavy festival UsFest will be taking over the Oxford Art Factory on April 6 with a message!
Prepare to have your ears blasted by a whirlwind of screams and distortion as a cymbal wildfire engulfs OAF. Announced yesterday in celebration of International Women’s Day, UsFest is bringing you the best of grassroots punk, rock and metal.
UsFest is a brand new rock, punk and metal festival aiming to inspire change in the gender disparity in music festival lineups from grassroots all the way up.
The lineup consists of many hot rising heavy enthusiasts flying in from across the country to support the cause, and features pop-punk co-headliners Yours Truly and Between You and Me. To encourage gender diversity, at least 50% of the acts must contain at least one non-male identifying member.
With Aussie festivals coming under scrutiny in recent years over poor gender balance in their lineups, Emmy Mack of RedHook and Tiana Jarvis saw a need for change. For Mack, it was also an emotional decision, as a performer in the heavy scene herself, which throughout history has been notoriously male-dominated.
Mack and Jarvis felt the need to turn a negative into a positive and instead of just calling out the issue, taking action to change it by bringing everyone together. They have been overwhelmed by the solidarity from the male artists involved alongside the support from high-profile artists.
It is so hard not to feel overwhelmed by dudes and beer as a female in the heavier scene myself, but we shouldn’t feel out of place. We just need to encourage and support each other, and UsFest is a great way in which we can start showing this.
Full lineup and ticket details available here.
