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Calgary’s Femme Wave rolls out 2017 festival lineup, hopes to expand its reach

The wave is growing and spreading

In its third year, Femme Wave, the local feminist multi-disciplinary arts festival which will take place Nov. 16 to 19 in the city, is expanding its reach, embracing the diversity of its audience and tastes, while hoping to appeal to a greater number of Calgarians.

“We’re taking a bit of a different approach to programming this year in an effort to bring in a wider audience,” co-artistic director Hayley Muir said in a statement.

“We’re representing a greater diversity of music genres and we’re really looking forward to seeing that impact the folks we see in the crowds. Femme Wave exists for everyone so it’s been a conscious effort on our part to appeal to more people.”

That is reflected in the musical acts, which combines healthy regional representation with acts from Eastern Canada and the United States.

Headliners for the event are: underground Philly rapper and producer Sammus; San Diego garage rock trio Soft Lions; Victoria-based acts Vic Horvath and Daisy D; and Windsor, ON’s electro artist Tigerwing.

Other musical acts over the course of the festival include: Amy Nelson, Sinzere, The Babyfats, Soft Cure, Bunwitch, Slut Prophet, Feminal Fluids, Future Womb, HARSH, Hood Joplin, Laura Shoenberg, Natalia Chai, Natural Sympathies, TOAM, Ursa, The Wolf and Mombod.

Femme Wave also has another healthy visual arts element to it, with some of those featured works coming from artists such as Hot Gossip Collective, Maddie Alexander, Chelsea Yang-Smith, KJ Toast and Margarine (aka Teresa Tam), and Susan Clarahan.

And once again, there will be comedy supplied by a trio of local standups: Amy, Bugg, Victoria Banner and Serena Shane.

As with last year, a large slate of workshops and screenings will be held in conjunction with groups including the Quickdraw Animation Society, EMMEDIA Gallery and Production Society, the University of Calgary Women’s Studies Program and Library and Cultural Resources Special Collections, and the Nakoda AV Club.

Tickets are now on sale at Sloth Records, Luke’s Drug Mart, and femmewave.com.

For more information, including a complete list of artists and events, as well as the festival schedule, please go to femmewave.com.

(Photo of Sammus courtesy Zoloo Brown.)

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