Last year, the great punk band Ekko Astral founded the DIY trans-rights music festival known as Liberation Weekend and held the first installment in their Washington, DC hometown. It looked awesome. This year, trans rights and Washington, DC are still under attack from the Trump administration, and the festival feels more urgent than ever. Thankfully, it's coming back for a second year, and its lineup seriously kicks ass.
The second Liberation Weekend goes down 4/24-26 at the Black Cat, a local institution, and at Transmission, a new venue on the site of the former Rock N Roll Hotel. Proceeds will go to the trans aid organizations Gender Liberation Movement and No More Dysphoria. Ekko Astral, a 2024 Stereogum Band To Watch with a new album in the works, will headline one of the nights alongside "friends." The other two headliners are punk legend Laura Jane Grace and Illuminati Hotties, who will play their 2020 album Free I.H. in full.
The Liberation Festival shows at the Black Cat have extremely cool lineups that go way beyond the headliners. Other acts on the bill include Pissed Jeans, Ragana, Pool Kids, Ezra Furman, Pom Pom Squad, Snowing, Gladie, Bambara, Silver Spring, MX LONELY, thisdogllhunt, Eevie Echoes & The Locations, Pinky Lemon, and Adult Human Females. Transmission will host day parties with bands like Peach Rings, Crush Fund, Hit Like A Girl, and Cryptid Summer. There will also be afterparties with lineups that haven't been unveiled yet.
Here's what Ekko Astral leader Jael Holzman says in a press release:
We cannot rely on institutions to save us. We can only rely on ourselves and the community we have to fight for trans America — and that now includes throwing a badass three-day benefit music festival. Let this incredible lineup be seen as a way of using art as a cultural battering ram against the people trying to erase us.
Get your tickets here.
