Take a close look at many festival bills all around the country. You will notice that in a large part, female artists are nonexistent or way down at the bottom of a majority of those lineups. This is not something that is genre specific, but seems to be an ongoing issue throughout music, in general. Rather than headlining or appearing on the mainstage schedules, female musicians can be found playing the side and smaller stages. The past couple of years has started to bring noticeable change, but much more work and awareness is needed to ensure equality within the music community. A festival such as MisFEST, an all-female fronted band lineup, is putting these issues front and center by bringing everyone together with music and fellowship in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The first MisFEST took place on May 13, 2017 at River West Festival Park. The idea developed when cofounders of the event, Amira Al-Jiboori and Casii Stephan saw a need and had a desire to bring the female music community together. Amira stated that, “Casii Stephan and I were new to the Tulsa music scene and started to notice the great female talent in Tulsa, but were also noticing that no one seemed to be doing anything together and if there was an event with multiple bands on the bill, it was rare to see a female headlining.” The initial idea was to have a “showcase” featuring the wonderful female talent that Oklahoma has to offer. The idea would quickly become something bigger once Amira met with Ryan Howell, the events coordinator for the River West Festival Park. “It turned out that he had a similar idea of something female-centric. After a quick coffee meeting and him showing me the River West Festival Park, we decided to expand our showcase to a one-day festival,” Amira told OKR. The idea became a reality, the planning phase began, and MisFEST was thus born.

Margo Price has a tune on her 2016 album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, titled “This Town Gets Around.” While the tune is primarily focused on Nashville, the lyrics can be attributed to women in the music industry, across the board. “As the saying goes, it’s not who you know/But it’s who you blow that’ll get you in the show/And if that’s not the case I hear you pay’em/But I don’t come easy and I’m flat broke/So I guess it’s me who gets the joke/Maybe I’d be smarter if I played dumb.” Unfortunately, this is only one of the many issues that women in the industry face in scenes all over the country. OKR asked Amira about some of the problems that women face in the business. She told us, “Sadly, there are quite a few that I have witnessed or had other female friends share stories. One, is that assumption that as a female, you do not know how to operate your instrument, hook up your cable, or engineer the sound for your instrument. I have heard women say that they do not feel that they are "taken seriously" as an artist. Then, of course, you have all the stuff that is being talked about more openly in the media about men doing things for women in the industry expecting to have it repaid in a sexual manner.” These are all valid reasons why a festival such as MisFEST is important to the local music community and beyond. We as a music family should be talking about and addressing these very important issues. MisFEST provides a platform for us to do just that.

The 2019 festival began on August 15th, with a MisFEST Songwriting Workshop at Fair Fellow Coffee. The event was hosted by two of Tulsa’s best songwriters and poets, Kalyn Fay and Jerica Wortham. The interactive event provided the opportunity to incorporate what you learned by writing a piece and performing it with live instrumentation backing you up. The second event leading up to the festival was a Digital Marketing for Artists Workshop. This event took place on September 5th at Local Cider & Angry Bear Mead and was hosted by the “Queen of Oklahoma Hip Hop,” Desiree Yearby, aka Dezz, aka Dezzgotsteeze. This class teaches you beginners tips and tricks on the 3 major social sites. You will learn the ins and outs on how the sites work, what you can do to improve your engagement, music releases and events.

The class also showed the future of social media and how to harness a fanbase through email marketing, websites, and PR to be ready for the next level. Both workshops provided necessary resources for local artists to help propel their music career.

The Guthrie Green in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma played host to the 2019 MisFEST on September 14, 2019. The location was a perfect spot for local artists and vendors to set up tents, for families to gather on the grass and the outdoor stage. The downtown skyline filled the backdrop, and provided the best setting for a wonderful lineup of music. The music started with an all-girl band from Shawnee, Oklahoma, Shoulda Been Blonde. The all-female group just released an EP on all digital platforms the day after their festival performance, and included some of those tunes in their set.

Second up on the festival bill was local rock and blues band, Yardbone, fronted by Bethany Kirby. They were a little bit funk, a little bit soul, and plenty of rock n’ roll.

More funk was to be had as Smoochie Wallus was next up on the outdoor stage. Fronted by female vocalist, Delaney Zumwalt, this quintet from Tulsa brings their own unique style and sound to the festival.

Hip Hop artist, Shakera Simmons, known as Bambi on stage brought the rhythm and the rhymes with the help of DJ Afistaface spinning the beats.

Tulsa artist, Tea Rush, was next up with her blend of R&B and Hip Hop. Tea Rush is the founder of Rush Fest, an island-themed music festival featuring local artists as well as emerging artists on the national level.

Good Villains followed on the Green stage. The “doom pop” band is imaginative, expressive, and full of the unknown. Featuring “The Girl” on vocals, “The Train” on drums, “The Giggler” on guitar, and “The Doctor” on bass.

KT Tunstall, the Edinburgh, Scotland native, now residing in Los Angles, headlined the third annual MisFEST. Tunstall has been nominated for multiple awards and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2007 for “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.” KT is known for having a very unique vocal range, called contralto, which in classical terms, means that she can reach the lowest female voice type on the scale. She combined that range with use of an Akai E2 Headrush loop pedal that she has named “Wee Bastard” to woo the packed crowd on the Guthrie Green. Having the star power of KT Tunstall headline MisFEST is a big step in the future headlining power for this festival in years to come.

MisFEST is here to provide a foundation for female artists to express their talents on a big stage. As the festival continues to grow, this will empower co-creators Amira Al-Jiboori and Casii Stephan to fulfill their vision for the festival. Success for MisFEST is to not have a need for MisFEST. Al-Jiboori told OKR that, “…if a festival was not needed to shine a larger spotlight on women in music, that may actually be the success! While there is still a need, I see it as a success when the artists feel valued, the fans feel entertained and walk away with a new favorite artist, and the artist community grows closer and collaborates more.” We at OKR have committed our support to this cause and want to see that this happens at a local level, as well as take place in the music industry on a national stage. Female artists have important things to say, and we all should be able to listen to their messages as we watch them on the main stages of festivals. They shouldn’t be included because they are female, but because they are talented and have earned the right to be there.