The new F word

One of the organisers is Jana Platau-Wagner, a German IT professional who relocated to Dublin in 2014.

“Feminism, to me, means being aware of the different resources and toolsets a human has due to their gender,” she says. “Simone de Beauvoir said, ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’ and I think it is still up to us to redefine and expand what a woman is, or can do.”

Unlike some females of the younger generation who openly admit to rejecting the feminist badge, Platau-Wagner has no hang-ups about the F word. “I very much prefer the word feminist, because it’s an idea I share with the likes of Alice Salomon, Maud Gonne and Judith Butler. It’s a tradition to be proud of.”

Modern feminism, however, is a different animal. “It has become more dynamic and pragmatic,” she says. “There are different focuses now than 100 years ago. The suffragette movement fought successfully for voting rights here; in Saudi Arabia that only was the case last December.

“Today our goals have diversified but our approach is more structured: anti- cat calling efforts and anti-sexism in one corner, and the issue of the gender pay gap in another. This has led to an image change. Feminism has become presentable — arguments can be made and discourses heard.”

Man in the middle: The F Festival is the brainchild of promoter Dean Venture

Platau-Wagner’s awareness of gender equality, she says, is inspired by her upbringing by her mother, a single parent. “When you grow up with a strong woman juggling work, a small wage, childcare, a loving home and the ambition to provide her children with a good education, you get a very real understanding of the need for equal opportunities,” she says. “My feminism is hands-on: asking for what you need, pointing out challenges, networking, mentoring and making the best out of the many achievements feminists obtained for us already.”

The F Festival is similarly hands-on. One of the more pragmatic mobilisations of its ilk, it is largely intended as a celebration of what women can do and how far they have come. It will take place in a handful of independent arts-focused Dublin venues, such as Wigwam (formerly Twisted Pepper), Hangar, The Grand Social, Filmbase, the Back Loft and Sweeney’s. It hopes to promote visibility for women as much as closing the equality gap, and in that sense, its motivations have something in common with last year’s well-organised Waking the Feminists campaign. Ignited by the Abbey Theatre’s Waking the Nation commemorative programme for 2016, in which only one of 10 plays due to be performed was written by a woman, and fuelled by an outpouring of support from both sexes in the arts, it developed into a grassroots movement calling for equality for women across the Irish theatre sector.

With a strictly all-female panel, however, F Festival is unprecedented in Ireland. Not surprisingly, this has raised the question: how can a festival championing equality and inclusiveness ban the boys from the podium?

“If you see where we are coming from, that our idea is to celebrate the state we are in as women and how far we have come already, I find this argument hardly valid,” says Platau-Wagner. “Would people criticise a Formula One race on the same grounds? Overall, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. It seems like we are putting together the celebration that women in this country have been waiting for.”

Tut-tutting at an all-girl line-up is an argument that seems to puncture and hiss when Dean Venture steps forward. Venture, owner of tour and promotions company Venture Presents, is a prolific event manager and technician, and the F Festival is his brainchild. “I think at this point I could safely say I consider myself a feminist,” says Venture. “It refers to the radical idea that we are all equal — I don’t think it could be any clearer. People have made up their own minds about what it means, and in turn it has become something of a dirty word you wouldn’t dare to say around the dinner table.”

For Venture, feminism is something you practise, as much believe in. “I’m putting modern feminism into practice by creating a welcoming space with an open-door policy,” he says. “I use guerilla campaigning and private networks for a bigger plan — to bring everyone together and then push into deeper matters. For the participants, it’s a platform to showcase their skills and talents and share their stories among a variety of like-minded people.

“Creativity, vision and selflessness are the ingredients for life-changing events. It’s worked in the past — there’s no reason for it not to work again.”

Here, Venture is referring to last April’s ground-shifting marriage equality referendum. “Ireland was a landmark for equality in 2015,” he says. “Irish people have spoken out and have now witnessed the change they created, with their own hands. Feminism is equality: people are eager to see that state of true equality in our country.”

The third key organiser is Jack Olohan, the founder of Dublin-based online radio station radiomade.ie. Olohan will be producing a series of F Festival podcasts drawing on the array of content the events will produce.

The festival takes place in venues across the city, from art spaces and venues to bars and nightclubs. A series of panel discussions will include speakers such as Avril Stanley, founder of the Body & Soul festival, Katherine Wyers, composer and founder of online music school melodycollege.com, Sarah McGinn of online shop Opsh, Bettine McMahon of KnockanStockan festival, Andrea Horan of Tropical Popical, Dee Reddy from TXFM radio and members of the Waking the Feminists movement, plus many others.

Other highlights are Laura Ann Brady, the electronic music artist, spoken word artists Vickey Curtis, Ailish J Kerr and Alicia Byrne Keane; Ais ‘the Bash’ Daly, Ireland’s most prominent female MMA fighter, and musical acts such as Bairbre Anne, Spines, Twin Headed Wolf and I Am Niamh. The stand-up comedy billing at Wigwam on Abbey Street, titled That’s What He Said, will feature Eve Darcy, Andrea Farrell, Alison Spittle and Joanne McNally of RTEs Republic of Telly.

“There is an amazing team of people giving all their free time and energy to this event while holding down their normal lives, and it honestly would not be happening if it wasn’t for them believing in the festival’s vision,” says Dean Venture. “A few people said I was ‘crazy’ and ‘brave’ to do this, but this team are the crazy and brave ones. Looking at the lineup across all segments, they deserve celebration on their own.

“As for the public, if they come to enjoy and celebrate some amazing art, music, comedy, spoken word or talks, fantastic. If something more grows out of this, amazing. Either way, F Festival has done its job.”

‘Fireside feminism’
Claire Byrne, 32, who works in the charity sector, calls herself a feminist but refuses to get bogged down by perceived stereotypes about what that means. Byrne’s contribution to the discussion is a form of fireside activism: a feminist book club, with roughly a dozen members. It had its first gathering last Wednesday, in a week that contained both International Women’s Day and World Book Day.

“The word feminist is so nuanced it can be a minefield to define. I keep it simple: a feminist is someone who believes in the equal political, economic, cultural, personal and social rights of women. I call myself one and don’t apologise for it, or try to control people’s interpretations of it,” Byrne says.

Through her book club, Byrne hopes to start a conversation and challenge her own pre-judgements. “I wanted a space for both men and women to talk, challenge each other and learn something,” she says.

The club will meet every two months, and Byrne is an equal opportunities feminist: she has invited both females and males. “I didn’t involve men to be tokenistic. I don’t think you can have successful feminist action without men. The unfortunate truth is that men still wield a lot of power, authority and influence. Their voices are heard over their female counterparts.

“To influence change, you have to get men on board and there are so many men in my life who identify as feminists — why wouldn’t I want to hear what they have to say?”

The club’s first book is the bluntly named Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf. “Privately women will talk to each other about their sex life, sexuality, identity, childbirth etc, but a lot of it is still taboo.

“In this book, Naomi Wolf writes from her own personal experience. I am delighted that she wrote it — and that she called it Vagina — and started a conversation.”

F Festival runs on Saturday, March 12, and its door policy champions everyone’s favourite F-word: all events are free.

For the full programme, visit ffestival.net or see the Facebook page: facebook.com/events/218901398455222