Here it is! Your quick and easy guide to this fall's highly anticipated event: Ladyfest! Amy Leigh, Sandi Falconer, and Amy Emel spoke with infectious enthusiasm (perhaps due to Future Bakery's 'œunique'? coffee?) as they gave Sarah Kolasky the what, when, who, where, and why's you ought to know.

WHAT is Ladyfest? Amy L: Ladyfest is three days of art, music, films, workshops, dance parties, and all kinds of other fun things. It's all organized by women, to showcase the talents of women, but the fest is open to everyone and we encourage everybody to come out to it.

WHEN is Ladyfest? Sandi: October 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, beginning Friday night and ending Sunday night. Amy L.: And there will be stuff during the daytime and at night, at various places around Toronto, mostly in the Parkdale area.

Why Parkdale? Amy L.: The organization that we're donating our proceeds to is CultureLink. They have drop-in programs for girls who are new immigrants to Canada, and they're located in Parkdale. Also, our main venue is The Gladstone, and since they're letting us do all-ages shows there, we based everything around those two factors, and so people don't have to travel all across the city to go to workshops and shows at night. And that way we're keeping things within the community, considering that's who we're donating the money to. Sandi: We also wanted to make it a hub, where everyone would be hanging out, and just be together all day.

WHO will we see at Ladyfest? Amy L.: Cougar Party will be playing, The Barcelona Pavilion, and Scarlet Sins '“ Sandi: Amy's really excited about that. Amy L.: Yes, cause they're this all-girl metal band!.. And then we have a couple bigger, out of town things that we're working on, like Tennessee Twins, from B.C. And there's one really big band, but they're not confirmed yet. Amy E.: We're also loud ladies, so when we have confirmations, you'll hear about them. Amy L.: And people can check out ladyfest.ca to keep tabs on what's going on, and we have a discussion board on there so people can hype stuff up before the fest. We're also going to have tons of film screenings, and there's going to be art shows, spoken word and workshops.

What sort of workshops? Amy L.: Various things, we're still looking for submissions... We're going to have things like D.I.Y. bike repair, and Punk Rock Aerobics.

Punk Rock Aerobics? Amy L.: Yeah, there's this group of girls from Ottawa, called the Jezebels, and they have this huge routine, and then they teach people... Amy E.: Plus we're going to have a Seripop workshop, as well. They're going to be doing a screen-printing workshop, which is going to be awesome. Amy L.: We also have two benefits coming up in September. Gentleman Fest is going to be on September 9th at The Gladstone. It's going to feature a bunch of bands that are mostly boys '“ sort of like the boys helping out the ladies... givin' their props to the girls... Sandi: Getting involved. Amy L.: Yeah. The bands that are playing are The Pauls and Femme Generation. We have DJ Mikey Apples spinning, and there are two other bands that are soon to be announced. And then we have another show on Wednesday, September 22nd at Sneaky Dee's, and The Guest Bedroom will be playing, which is Sandi's band... Amy E.: Come out and dance, '˜cuz it'll be fun!

My next question was 'œWHERE is Ladyfest'? but that has kind of already been answered. Unless you want to answer it in an abstract sense. Amy L.: Yeah, where is Ladyfest...? Amy E.: In our hearts! Amy L.: In our hearts! And in our dancing shoes, and in our pants! Sandi: Up the Ladyfest! Amy L.: Up the Ladyfest!

And one more question: WHY should people come out to Ladyfest? Sandi: So many reasons. Amy E.: Soooo many reasons! Sandi: Well, we're going to have amazing acts, and events, and things to do. You're going to be kept busy and you're going to have fun, fun being number one.

That's a rhyme. Sandi: Yep! I didn't mean it! [laughs] And, well, what you're doing is standing up for something that is somewhat political, but not in a very hardcore in-your-face way. Like, 'œHey, we want to support all the ladies, but we want to have fun doing it.'? We want to dance, and we want to celebrate awesome women.

For more info on submissions and volunteering, go to www.ladyfest.ca