Negotiating lesbian worlds: the festival communities

As temporary but annually re-occurring communities, women's music festivals became a profound symbol of late twentieth century lesbian culture. These summer "Wombstocks" made available the best of lesbian music and comedy in presumably safe settings for sexual display, political networking, and Goddess-centered spirituality. Yet such lesbian utopias were never without conflict. They served as sounding boards for every issue simmering in the lesbian community: racism, classism, lesbian mothers of boy children, S/M, and, most recently, the exclusion of transgender women from woman-only space. The twenty-plus festivals produced from 1974 to the present day each tackled political conflict, production values, and audience/camper services very differently. What was consistent among all festival communities and staff crews was the presentation of lesbian WORK, and the appreciative vibe from those attending-many of whom declared that the feeling of freedom from one festival week each summer fueled their energy for the entire year that followed.