The History of Venus Fest

Venus Fest was founded in the spring of 2017 in Tkaronto/ Toronto. 

At that time, there was virtually no mainstream conversation around the lack of gender parity, racial equity, accessibility, and other forms of representation in the music world. Artist Aerin Fogel founded Venus Fest with the intent to host a single day event, where onstage and behind the scenes, these underrepresented identities could be celebrated and embraced in their leadership. The inaugural festival was an overwhelming success, garnering reviews and attention from outlets like Billboard, FADER, VICE, and more, including a rare five star review from local outlet NOW Magazine. Venus Fest was clearly needed in the world.

Since then, Venus Fest has grown into a beloved mainstay of the local community, and has showcased and fostered the growth of hundreds of artists. This has involved an annual festival each year, full-scale mentorship programs, and a monthly series of shows. Venus Fest has had the privilege of supporting groundbreaking artists and mentors like Bikini Kill, Jully Black, Charlotte Cardin, Lido Pimienta, Grouper, ALOK, and so many more, as well as the privilege of being many artists’ first performance or opportunity to share their art. Along the way, Venus Fest has also garnered meaningful partnerships with many organizations seeking similar realities within music, such as Luminato, CJRU radio, POP Montreal, The Music Gallery, Tkaronto Music Fest, AfroWave, Sketch, Not Dead Yet, Debaser, and many more.

Much growth has occurred in the Canadian and global music landscapes since 2017, but much growth still waits to be explored. The many losses and barriers added from the coronavirus pandemic continue to this day, disproportionately affecting artists who already had many barriers to face. The resurgence of the #MeToo movement in 2018 and organizations like the Keychange Project, which encourage major festivals around the globe to commit to gender parity on their lineups, the strength of the Black Lives Matter movement, and so many other initiatives, have blossomed the larger conversations around equity in the world as well as within music. Festivals and organizers began to implement clear action steps in anti-racist learning and policy building, creating more physically accessible and safer spaces, programming that honours neurodivergent and different abled experiences within the arts, and so much more.

But our world has changed in painful ways as well. The safety of many of our beloved communities and artists, especially those who are Black, Indigenous, trans, and disabled, continues to be at risk. Now is a time to come together with personal and collective action that draws from the beauty of all life’s experience. Like any ecosystem, our strength comes from the vastness of diversity, where each differing element plays a crucial and significant role in the overall wellbeing of the environment. One of the most beautiful aspects of creative work is that it can imagine and create something that did not previously exist. Venus Fest follows this practice of creativity, as it continues to imagine and build realities that do not yet exist, but can come into being through our personal and collective commitments. May it continue to be a creation of the future of music.