DC Arts Center (DCAC) · Washington, DC · 2002
Dana Ellyn with "Waiting for Peter Pan" at LadyFest DC, DCAC, 2002
The original Ladyfest grew out of a five-day women-focused music and art gathering in Olympia, Washington — an event whose DIY ethos proved so contagious that it seeded sister festivals across the country and abroad, from Indiana and Michigan to Glasgow. By 2002, the D.C. edition marked the tenth Ladyfest overall, with roughly a dozen more in the works worldwide.
Organizer Allison Wolfe, an informal advisor to Ladyfest chapters nationwide, framed the festival as more than a showcase of women's art — it was a demonstration of women running every part of the operation themselves, offering an alternative to a music scene where women often felt like outsiders at their own shows. Each city's Ladyfest, she noted, took its own shape, drawing on local performers and artists to reflect that community. There was no central organization behind the movement — just a shared spirit and a loose web of independently run festivals linked through ladyfest.org.
— Adapted from Eric Brace, "Ladyfest D.C.: Grrrls, Uninterrupted," The Washington Post, Aug. 1–2, 2002
A self-portrait of Dana Ellyn seated in the bus station in New York City, waiting for the Peter Pan bus back to Washington, DC after a day trip — the painting exhibited in the LadyFest DC show at DCAC.