FemPop, we are one

They had spent the last 72 hours together almost without interruption. They had been in Granollers, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Rubí, playing concerts on three consecutive days. Eating together in the backstage, sharing instruments, changing rooms, bathrooms, pedals, trains and cars. And now, in the mid-afternoon sun of Rubí, it was time to say goodbye. AISHA BURNS (USA), ELIZA SHADDAD (UK) and LIZ LAWRENCE (UK) gave each other long hugs, the kind that you usually see in painful farewells. When they finally let go of one another, there was a brief silence. Until one of the three said that maybe they could travel together back to Barcelona. And maybe go get a last beer together? The three nodded. They would not return to the apartment until three in the morning.

Maybe this is what we like most about FemPop. The camaraderie among the artists in all editions. Haley Heynderickx and Rosie Carney hugging a tree together, Lydia Cole and Hailey Beavis admiring the sunset together from Castell de Montjuïc, all the musicians attending all the concerts of the others, applauding enthusiastically after each and every song. And that is the essence of FemPop. Indeed, it’s the festival that does not want to exist. But it’s also the festival that wants to create community. That wants to gather artists, public, organizers, towns and places. Because there is no other way to combat inequality than coming together and realize that we are all one.

We attach the video of “WOMAN”, Liz Lawrence’s precious song we sang together in all three concerts and which made us cry each time as if it were the first time.