Gatas y Vatas is an all-ages music festival for solo, women artists to push their own boundaries and those of their audience. We welcome trans and cis women, as well as genderqueer and non-binary people.
First-time solo performers take the stage, and seasoned veterans do, too. Sometimes the experiment is simply spending 10 to 20 minutes in a spotlight alone, presenting your ideas and yourself. Sometimes “experimental” means learning to fly through the air, summoning one’s inner Sci-Fi witch, building elaborate visuals or pushing noise through monolithic speakers. It’s also a huge party. Anything goes, and anything can happen.
The annual festival began in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2010. Five years later, it also toured through Seattle and Oakland. In 2017, it will be in Santa Fe at Ghost on Oct. 12, and in Albuquerque at the Fusion Space on Oct. 13 and 14. The fest aims to close the on-stage gender gap by bringing people together, and making space for new people to take the stage. In Albuquerque, we’ve seen Gatas y Vatas give rise to many new performers, who went on to continue playing year-round, booking shows, starting bands and going on tour.
GyV has also become a party for visual artists and crafters to showcase their work, and it’s sparked a series of compilation albums, companion zines, art shows, benefit parties and workshops. All kinds of people—women and men—banded together to raise up this showcase over the years.
Gatas y Vatas aims to be a positive experience for people of all ages and doesn’t tolerate subtle or unsubtle forms of discrimination. Period.