Queer women rule pop, at All Things Go and in the current cultural zeitgeist

NEW YORK (AP) — Venue staff wore rainbow heart-shaped stickers. LGBTQ+ pride flags doubled as capes. Pink cowboy hats, a calling card for Chappell Roan fans, reached critical mass at pop-ups like Dave’s Lesbian Bar. Nearby, at a stand for the online sexual healthcare company Wisp, attendees posed in front of a glittery vulva.

At New York's Forest Hills Stadium this weekend, thousands of concertgoers descended upon All Things Go, a Washington-area independent music festival that made its way to Queens for the first time, amid unyielding rain. But no matter: The dedicated trudged through puddles in Doc Martens and ponchos to see their favorite artists, a sonically cohesive lineup of mostly major label acts with indie pop sensibilities who were, perhaps remarkably, almost exclusively women.

All of the top-billed acts at the New York festival were women who identify as trans, queer, bisexual, pansexual, or lesbian, as well — Boygenius' Julien Baker, Ethel Cain, Muna, Janelle Monae, Reneé Rapp, and previously Chappell Roan, who dropped out of the fest on Friday. The point was made best by the pop band Muna, who flashed the phrase “LESBOPALOOZA” on LED screens before their performance Saturday night.

“It’s not unheard of or unusual, by any means, for a music festival to feature nothing but queer women musicians,” says Nadine Hubbs, professor of women’s and gender studies and music at the University of Michigan. “But the category of (this) music festival does make it groundbreaking.”

She points to the women’s music movement of the 1970s and ’80s, which featured artists like the indie folk band Two Nice Girls and Melissa Etheridge. “It was a movement specifically made up of queer women,” she says, “an outgrowth of the second wave feminist movement and then, the gay politics of that time.” Then there's the feminist punk movement of riot grrrls in the '90s, or Lilith Fair. “But this is something different,” Hubbs says of All Things Go.

“These artists are heard by lots of people, not only women who identify as lesbian or queer and not only women. They are charting in the top 40 and they are playing stages like ‘Saturday Night Live,’” she says. “What’s new about it is how much it is at the center of pop music right now.”

Queer women's dominance of pop music is in part because, Hubbs says, more stars are coming out, “providing community and solidarity for other young women in the spotlight to come out.”

Not only that, but they are also writing songs about their sexuality, explicitly and consensually, like in Roan's “Red Wine Supernova” or Billie Eilish's “Lunch,” that are funny and sophisticated — upping the quality, she says, for all to enjoy.

The mainstream popularity of music made by queer women feels new, but these artists — and others like them and the smaller-font acts on All Things Go flyer — have been celebrating their community for years.

All Things Go started as a music blog founded by Will Suter, Stephen Vallimarescu, Zack Friendly and Adrian Maseda, evolving into a music festival in 2014 in Washington's Union Market. It grew in size, eventually relocating to the much larger Merriweather Post Pavilion in nearby Maryland. This year, to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the festival took place in Maryland and New York simultaneously. The lineups were similar, but not identical: They shared some artists in Monae, Rapp and, previously, Roan.

“We have dedicated security meetings to Chappell Roan’s performance and just what we’re going to do in both markets, making sure that we’re able to take care of the audience, making sure we’re able to take care of fans,” Suter told The Associated Press a few weeks before the breakout performer who's experienced an exponential rise in fame — and scrutiny — dropped out, citing health reasons.

In Maryland, Roan was replaced by Muna. In New York, drag queens lip-synced to her hit songs, met with an arena-wide singalong.

What might seem like a landmark lineup in 2024 actually dates back to 2018, just after the #MeToo movement ignited. That year, All Things Go partnered with the Women's March and first booked a day of only women, orchestrated by musician Maggie Rogers and Neon Gold Records' Lizzy Plapinger, as an alternative to male-dominated music fests.

It was a “commercial success,” says Suter, and so they began asking fans who they would like to see in the future. “And what did the fans want to see after 2018? A lot of it was female-forward artists. And we kind of kept going with that.”

There is real economic interest in booking more women: “There's extreme demand,” he says. “We sell out immediately.”

“Booking at least a 50-60% female lineup should not be difficult,” says Carlie Webbert, a manager at All Things Go who focuses on partnerships and marketing. But what sets this festival apart, she says, is that their lineup showcases “a fan’s whole world,” drawing their favorite artists all in one place instead of booking simply the biggest acts across the biggest genres.

So, what does a festival like All Things Go, which mirrors the pop zeitgeist, say about the current moment?

“It may not signal so much that our culture has changed as that it will change as a result,” says Hubbs. “We have now a generation of young women who refuse to be shamed in certain ways. They are educated like no generation before about the abuses — sexual, social, interpersonal — that women and girls are subject to and have long been subject to. And they have a better understanding of these as structural problems.”

That's reflected in the music they listen to and make.

Long before Monae would close the festival, bringing her larger-than-life ode to pleasure on stage (at one point wearing a vulva-shaped headpiece), fans stood in line to vote for next year's headliners — a list of 10 artists, all women.

Two fans in matching pink ponchos rushed by. One turned to the other for their assessment. “It's All Things Gay,” they laughed, disappearing into the crowd.