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The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

 I've just learned about this yesterday - despite living here and vacationing near the festival nearly my entire life I've remained totally unaware of a radical feminist music festival in the woods of Oceana County, Michigan.  I'm just some boring cishet dude, so I hope I can do this story justice (even though it's not my story to tell).

From the woods about a half hour north of the Electric Forest Festival, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival ran from 1976 to 2015.  The whole event was supposed to be built, staffed, run, and attended by women.  From their website, "The Festival takes place on 650 acres of remote Michigan woodlands, with options ranging from a solitary deep-woods camping experience to a fireside urban site with neighbors from around the globe."

The entire Womyn's Music Festival is rooted in the womyn-born womyn movement, and as such, is a branch of second-wave radical feminism that is exlusionary of trans individuals.  Trans-exclusionary radical feminism (or TERF) ideology is what JK Rowling and Dave Chappelle were both "cancelled" by Teh Woak MOb over in 2022.  In 1991, there was an incident at the MWMF wherein a trans individual was turned away at the door, and spawned a secondary/rival/protest event in following years.

The protest group was called Camp Trans, and started up in 1994.  By 2006, the MWMF relented and said that while their festival never had official policies of trans exclusion, trans women were just expected to exclude themselves.  For the 2007 festival, they said they wouldn't interfere with trans women who wanted to buy a ticket.  Camp Trans continued until MWMF's demise in 2015 as a community to ensure the festival workers and attendees had support and resources.

The MWMF lives on as Fernfest, which takes place during a full week in the month of August.  A truncated music festival called Michigan Framily Reunion takes place within Fernfest, but only from August 4 through 7.  Framily Reunion appends the original catchphrase by removing the letter y and saying "A music festival that is built buy women, for women."

Fernfest is "a safe and inclusive women's festival for all women (cist, trans, non-binary, BIPOC, deaf/HOH, women with disabilities) to foster connection, community, and belonging."  This includes music, workshops, crafts and vending, and even a food truck section.

For further reading:
https://www.transadvocate.com/repeating-the-cycle-at-michfest-the-clash-of-two-feminisms_n_15109.htm
https://www.thelesbianstoryproject.com/saving-michigan-womens-music-festival-land/
https://www.autostraddle.com/how-the-michigan-womyns-music-festivals-topless-womyn-changed-my-lesbian-life-forever/
https://www.curvemag.com/blog/festivals/welcome-home-to-the-michigan-womyns-festival/

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