Media Kit November 26 - 29, 2015 Calgary, Alberta www.femmewave.com | [email protected]

About Femme Wave For four days in November, Femme Wave will showcase the astounding female talent of Calgary’s music community and create warm and welcoming spaces to celebrate our history and encourage future generations of feminists. The comedians, bands visual artists and DJs of Femme Wave are all female-identified, or female-inclusive, and speak to the spirit of feminism. The festival is comprised of both all-ages and 18+ events, in a multi-venue format that allows the festival to make its mark on several key venues, including The Palomino, Broken City, Tubby Dog and Community Wise. Femme Wave will be FUN. It will be joyous noise in great local clubs. It will be thoughtful conversations in safe spaces. It will be inclusive, welcoming, heady and full of heart.

Who We Are The leadership team making Femme Wave happen is comprised of twelve women dedicated to the arts community of Calgary who have all been shaping the community from as many as five to fifty years. We have a veteran group of festival planners to help foster our ideas and grow Femme Wave toward the big, beautiful, collaborative festival that it is destined to be. With backgrounds in event management, arts administration, community outreach, and publicity and marketing, the Femme Wave team brings dozens of years of experience in large-scale local events, such as the Calgary Folk Music Festival, and our own highly successful and well-regarded events, including Indie Rock Xmas (2007, 2009), End of the World Music Festival (2012), and the recent first-annual Carol of the Belles (2014). Through these events, we have been honoured to partner and/or work with a multitude of organizations and groups, such as National Music Centre, Arts Commons, Safe Red Mile, Safe Stampede, CJSW 90.9 FM, Sled Island and JazzYYC. We are passionate about showcasing local artists in once-in-a-lifetime musical events, encouraging unusual collaborations, and activating our communities to come together to support a great cause.

Hayley Muir, Co-Founder

Hayley has spent most of her time involved in local music and culture, as a staff member and programmer at CJSW 90.9 FM, production coordinator for BeatRoute Magazine, and an avid fan and show-goer. She has spent the last few years on the front lines, refining her marketing, management and media strategy experiences. Her outspoken nature and feminist attitude allow her to make constant waves in Calgary’s music community.

Kaely Cormack, Co-Founder

Kaely is the project manager for a reputable marketing agency by day, and a punkrock musician and live music fan by night. She spent five years writing and editing for BeatRoute Magazine, and uses her artistic understanding and organizational skills to bring creative concepts to life. Her experience in the Calgary music community is as a fan, contributor and cheerleader.

Kenna Burima, Director

Kenna is highly dialed into the local music scene(s), with a classical background and a penchant for indie rock. She shines as a curator and producer and encourages unique collaborations between artists. Her practical experience includes artist management, with years of experience advancing contracts for national and international artists.

Johanna Schwartz, Marketing and Communications

Johanna has fifteen years’ experience as an arts administrator and marketing and communications lead. She is a web designer, social media maven and strategic communicator.

Sharon Stevens, Community Connector

Sharon brings three decades of administrative and project management experience including government relations, business revitalization and the arts/culture sector. Advocacy, diplomacy and community connecting are the strong suit she brings to her passion for promoting Calgary.

Melanie Maduik, Event Logistics

Whether she is bringing 500 Quebecois car salespeople and their spouses to Panama, or hosting a Christmas party for O&G offspring, Melanie makes sure everyone’s experience is top notch. She is fluent in event-speak, and has a passion for detail.

FESTIVAL ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS FIST CITY Fist City are a Southern Alberta garage staple that never stop. They’ve been ripping their jittery, fuzzed-out punk across Canada and the US for 6 years and show no signs of slowing. Their latest release, Everything Is A Mess, is an unrelenting album full of crunchy riffs, gut-punching lyrics and walls of sound. Fist City are truly one of Southern Alberta’s greatest garage punk bands.

CHANTAL CHAGNON Chantal Chagnon is a Cree/Métis woman living in Calgary, with roots in Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan. A single mother of two boys, she understands societal struggle first hand. Chantal has been an activist, advocate for her community, a staunch crusader for causes close to her heart, and a professional performer for many years. Chantal is active within the Idle No More movement organizing events, speaking and presenting, singing and drumming within the community, with a focus on building allies and alliances. Chantal Chagnon is passionate about building awareness and sharing understanding of aboriginal culture, spirituality, social justice and political issues. She creates opportunities for cooperation, education, and empowerment everywhere she can.

YOLANDA SARGEANT Yolanda Sargeant (of Antiguan/Grenadian descent) was born with a gift to sing and has been striving to share that gift with the world since a young age. Coming from a musical family her biggest influence was her father. His record collection stirred a love for the sweet sounds of calypso, soca, reggae and soul music. She was further inspired to pursue a career in music by one of her uncles, who was an accomplished jazz musician, touring with many of the New York jazz legends. Her distinct vocal tone, combined with her natural cadence brings the audience back to a time when music was golden.

SINZERE SINGS Sinzere is a Calgary hip hop artist, singer, song-writer, DJ and choreographer. She cites her mother as her biggest influence and icon; being raised by a single black mother played a tremendous part in her belief in female-empowerment. Musically, Sinzere is influenced by Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass, Mary J. Blige, Tamia and more and has been working hard in music for the majority of her life. She was named Calgary’s Most Exciting New Emcee by National Youth Arts Week and has opened for numerous high-profile artists including Raekwon, Rakim, Obie Trice, Elephant Man, and more.

MARLAENA MOORE Marlaena Moore has the kind of voice that can quiet the loudest of rooms and rattle the quietest of rooms. Combine that with perfectly structured songs and an authentic, unpretentious personality and what you have is a rare talent. Whether she is performing solo or with others (Switches, Power Buddies, The Sweathearts) Marlaena’s performances manage to be simultaneously dynamic and intimate.

MARIEL BUCKLEY The haunting, alt-country melodies of Mariel Buckley are not easily forgotten among the polished, typical tunes of modern country music. Amidst the sea of neon-Nashville superstars, Buckley offers a crunchy, roots alternative. Fresh from her 2015 Calgary Folk Music Festival debut, Buckley is in the early stages of planning her second full-length album. This young, feisty songstress has picked up some steam and doesn’t intend on slowing down.

BLU SHORTS This Calgary quartet have a lock on weird, vicious and wandering noisy punk. They’ve released two tracks, TV Avenue and Line Giver, which offer up a satisfaction that is both disconnected and hand-in-hand with the other. Infectious, hooky, fuzzy, angry. Whatever you’re into, you’ll be into Blu Shorts. With deep pedigrees in various other musical projects, there’s no question this band will leave their mark wherever they go.

GIRLS ROCK CAMP CALGARY Girls Rock Camp Calgary is a local initiative started in the spring of 2013 by Nicola Lefevre. The camp invites girls between the ages of 12 and 17, of all backgrounds and abilities to engage with each other through musical education and performance, in a positive female-centric environment. Femme Wave is proud to showcase the amazing talent of previous Girls Rock Camp Calgary alum on Saturday, November 28th for a free, all-ages event. Hosted in everyone’s favourite local hotdog shop, Tubby Dog, the graduates of camp have been invited to express their creativity through whatever outlet

they prefer. The Girls Rock Camp Variety Show will feature multiple genres of music and instrumentation, spoken word, visual art and more. For the past three summers, Girls Rock Camp Calgary has provided a safe and encouraging space for teenage girls to express themselves, build self esteem and learn self-empowerment through creative expression. A network of organizers and volunteers bring decades of musical knowledge and industry experience to camp, providing a truly invaluable learning experience for the girls. The music community of Calgary

THE WRONG KIND OF GIRLS The Wrong Kind of Girls are a lesbian, feminist, comedy, ukelele troupe from Calgary. They admittedly have the market cornered on lesbian comedy ukelele troupes and have recently sold out gigs performing in town with local spoken word pioneer Sheri-D Wilson. They are an exciting, welcoming and long overdue force in music and comedy here in the city.

has embraced the ideology of the camp, which was evident this past summer when Girls Rock Camp Calgary was featured in Metro News, CTV News, CBC Radio 1, 95.3 The Peak and The Calgary Herald. After each band recorded their self-written songs in the world class OCL Studios, airwaves quickly took note of the music and CJSW had the hits of Girls Rock Camp Calgary charting in the top 10 slot for three weeks in a row. Femme Wave is proud to partner with Girls Rock Camp Calgary and all the wonderful things they do for the next generation of feminists.