Doll Fest is the punk-rock festival of your dreams. This annual event fosters a welcoming, inclusive space hosting some of the best femme and non-binary fronted acts. It was an intimate enough space to where you could make friends with the person next to you between acts or meet the band at the merch table. From my first time attending last year, I vividly remember the excitement each act brought to the stage. The audience was eagerly awaiting the calculated chaos about to unfold.
I sat down with Maria Chaos, founder of Doll Fest, on a beautiful weekend day in Berkeley to discuss what’s to come with this year’s iteration of the fest. We also chatted about Bay Area music culture as a whole, navigating the music industry, and how we can support our favorite bands. Read all about it below.
What is it about the East Bay that led you to start the fest here instead of, say, San Francisco or somewhere else in the Bay?
Maria Chaos: There are a few reasons. To be very transparent – when I first came up with the idea of Doll Fest, I had no clue where I wanted it to be. I was in the midst of moving back to Portland, Oregon from San Diego. As I was driving up, a friend of mine who is out in the East Bay introduced me to some folks who in turn introduced me to a few people, and it snowballed. The people who wanted to help put something like this together were in the East Bay.
I’ve always really loved Oakland and appreciate it for its very rich artistic scene. I grew up in Stockton, California which has had its moments, but I felt musically deprived. I was very into theater when I was younger. When I started exploring my music taste, I would try to find other musical places. I was always brought back to the Bay Area.
Seeing how strong the community out here is, that’s what made me want to have Doll Fest in the East Bay. There are a lot of people who are super excited that the East Bay gets to have something.
Michelle Castillo: No hate to San Francisco, but going over the bridge can be a lot sometimes. Thank you for having it here!
With the success of the inaugural Doll Fest last year, what are you hoping to continue to improve or add on to the fest for this year?
Chaos: Having a more accessible location, from what people shared with me was definitely something that I took into account. This not only included the location being BARTable, but the hours of the fest as well. I love that most of the people who attended all want to be in bed by 11pm, myself included.
I listened to the feedback that I was given because this is not about me or what I want or what I think is going to work. It’s about what the people who are attending want and what they are saying does and doesn’t work.
There are only a handful of festivals, as you mentioned in another interview, that highlight non-male acts, at least in their headlines. When We Were Young and Aftershock, for example, have had all male acts at the top of the bill. Some festivals have made initiatives to work with organizations like Women in Music to improve their selection. How do you feel we can better support non-male fronted bands and show these larger festivals that we want them to headline and be on those large stages?
Chaos: Buy stuff from them, support them by liking, sharing, buying a song off Bandcamp. Going to their shows, if you can. Sharing their shows. Really just spreading their music. You know, if there is a band that you like and they are non cis, het, male fronted, also, specifically white, do the best you can to share, listen, and purchase their music.
Just having someone come up to you and say, “hey, I really like your band.” Or say, “hey, I want to buy a vinyl,” is the greatest gift ever. The ability for folks to be able to do what they love is what keeps this community growing and thriving.
Art is very subjective. We all know that there are going to be people in this world who don’t like the art we make, and that is okay, but sometimes it hurts. Being able to give back to an artist who may be discouraged and say that you love what they’re doing is really fuel for the fire. We need that right now. We need joy.
What have you learned while working in the music industry?
Chaos: How much time do you have?
Castillo: As much as you need. [Both laugh]
Chaos: I love the music industry. It’s a very special industry to be part of, but at the same time it’s very emotional. It can be a roller coaster of constant rejection from both a production or an artist perspective. It really depends on the thicker the skin, the better chance you’re going to have of navigating the industry.
I didn’t have a thick skin in the beginning; I didn’t have the ability to say what I’m okay with. Nor did I have the ability to not take offense when someone didn’t reply back to an email. It’s part of it, and I’m ok with it now. What I am not okay with is not trying. That’s the best advice I can give about being in this industry is that you have to try. We all get into our feelings and whatnot. It helped me grow and strengthen my tenacity.
What do you hope to achieve in general with this festival?
Chaos: One achievement was volume three of Doll Fest in Mexico City. There are other expansions we’ve done, like our first charity event on November 1. That was such a success and a really beautiful event. It was like walking into a hug. The room was full of love, and everyone was having a good time, and people were kind to one another and respectful. That’s all I would like to accomplish, is to be able to keep putting events like that together.
We’re working on some other developments right and partnering with local organizations, as well as putting together some other events that may not necessarily be music oriented. We had our comedy show on February 20 over at the Lost Church, which is super exciting because, I mean, who doesn’t want to pay a couple dollars to laugh for an hour and a half to two hours? Jenny, who was our hostess with the mostest, was a dream to work with.
I want to keep putting together events where you bring community together. Community is strong out here. There’s a lot of reasons to be discouraged these days, and I want to give people something to look forward to.
Doll Fest
