Riot Fest Day One

Day one was not the best.  The weather was shitty, and I was apathetic about the day's lineup.  So, I will focus on the positive and write about the Pussy Riot speaks forum.  I have been a fan of theirs ever since I heard of their arrest.  To stand up to Putin like they did takes amazing courage.  I was excited when I heard they would be at Riot Fest.  I was even more psyched when I heard it was actually going to be a forum, with Henry Rollins moderating.  This was destined to be a Riot Fest highlight, and I was not disappointed in the least.

I arrived to the stage roughly half an hour early.  A small crowd had already formed. The crowd cheered as they would for any rock stars when Pussy Riot and the rest of the panel came out. The ladies seemed shocked, and had a very adorable moment when they took a few selfies. I was reminded the church protest was not necessarily anti-Putin, but about women's rights.  Women's rights are getting more and more restrictive in Russia.  They said they did not honestly expect to be arrested.  The forum spoke a lot about feminism, and how misogyny is still a big issue even in the United States.  They went on to discuss how prevalent it is in the music industry.  We were reminded that feminism is not a bad word.  At it's most basic, its the belief that men and women are equal.

Henry Rollins brought up the power of words a lot.  Lyrics can be so important.  He then somewhat touched on the history of punk.  Punk was started to fight authority and fight social injustices.  According to Rollins, it's gotten away from that and needs a refresh.  Pussy Riot is that refresh!  He also discussed how in the U.S.A. we are lucky that for the most part we are protected by freedom of speech.  We don't have to worry about being physically incarcerated. However, we can incarcerate ourselves in other ways.  I thought that was a very cool point.  The forum ended with the ladies wanting to take a selfie with the crowd.  You can clearly see me:)

I was very moved and inspired by this panel.  I used to be an idealist, but became a cynic pretty early on.  I blame it on being a poli sci major.  I gave up.  This made me kinda wake up , and wanna be active again.  In fact, I went and signed up to get involved with Amnesty International.  Job well done Riot Fest!

This is not my best entry.  Due to things not saving properly, I had to rewrite it three times.  I got tired of it.ha