Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

Each year, for one week in August, thousands of womyn gather in the woods of Michigan for a spectacular celebration of womyn's music and culture. I'm talking about the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, called MichFest by some and known to most simply as Michigan! The dates for the 2007 event are August 7-12.

Update: Hi everyone - I am working on updating this lens with the 2007 information. Please come back soon. In the meantime, visit www.michfest.com for more detailed 2007 information. Closing a raucous Saturday night show at the 2005 historic 30th Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, Toshi Reagon offered a word to the wise. "What really matters is being here next August for the 31st."

True to her word, Toshi was back on the Night Stage at this year's Festival, performing with her mother, the legendary Bernice Johnson Reagon, now retired from Sweet Honey in the Rock. This year's line up - 40 performances in all - features Michigan's signature combination of new blood and longtime beloveds, representing every genre, every generation and countries from across the globe.

As much as Michigan is a kick-ass music festival - with artists prized by the mainstream and underground alike - it is so much more. Michigan is a week that bears witness to women's creativity, competence, and fierce concern in a world so often culturally dominated by corruption and cynicism.

Born in the '70s, Michigan is no relic. The roster of performance artists is always fresh, and the vibe of new generations makes each year's audience an original. But the Festival's counter-cultural vision is as relevant and urgently needed today as it was thirty years ago.

That's why you'll see Melissa Ferrick returning after a six-year absence from the Michigan stage. And Vicki Randle flying in from her steady gig on the Tonight Show. Countless performers and campers make the trek to a square mile of oak and ferns in the middle of Michigan because there is simply nothing else like it.