My first Michfest

I first heard about Michigan Womyn's Music Festival from a coworker named Kate around 1988. She is a very tall womon with short curly black hair at the time. Kate laughed loudly and often, but was also pretty private about her personal life. She never actually came out to me, she just very gradually let me into her personal life so I could see the Hothead Paisan and Dykes To Watch Out For books on her shelf, and the Fat Is Beautiful magnet on her fridge. Kate originally told me she worked at a Girl Scout camp for a month in the summer, cooking in the kitchen. I had been to Girl Scout camp, so I could picture exactly what she meant. An industrial kitchen inside a giant building with tables like a cafeteria, a great room with a huge stone fireplace, a long screened in porch right near a lake with canoes. As she gradually let me in to her real self and I didn't run away screaming, she let on that she didn't actually work at a Girl Scout camp. It was a womyn's festival. All womyn, no men. Lots of music, clothing optional, even in the kitchen. Of course, now that I had my mental image of the Girl Scout camp, the nudity in the kitchen seemed pretty nuts and dangerous! Kate moved not too long after she told me she really went to Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. She moved in with her girlfriend she met at fest, a womon with a name she clearly wasn't born with but that I can't remember, a fest name certainly. Something like Artemis or Echinacea or Denver Daddy or something. Kate and I have not kept in touch. I know she was an amazon lesbian separatist, and I look for her every time I am at fest but I know I won't see her.

 I started going to the UU church and there is a group of womyn there who have a singing sister circle I got sucked into by accident, and they talked me into going to fest in 2004. It wasn't too hard to talk me into it of course. I was ready. I even asked a woman to come with me, my first womon lover. We took the Badger ferry on the red eye, got there Thursday morning. We had a good time, and I was hooked. I did a kitchen workshift and looked for Kate, laughing at my image of the kitchen versus the reality. I spent lots of that time crying. I am married and have two kids. I knew I was attracted to womyn and thought maybe I was bisexual. Being at fest helped me see who I am. I am a dyke. Being around other dykes is where I am most comfortable. I've never felt so much a part of a group. Michigan has never been just a party in the woods. It is now and has always been more like boot camp for feminist political and spiritual growth and development for me. It isn't all about sex, although I've grown sexually. It isn't all about friends, although I've made deeper and more friends there than anywhere in my life. So what is it? Perhaps I'll try and answer that tomorrow.