Good morning,

I hope you are well. I'm back from Glastonbury! If you do not know what Glastonbury is, it's a large and self-important music festival in the South West of England. It was also extremely fun this year. Some amazing women played too so this week's Fem Fri is a round up of things enjoyed.

I've tried to highlight some artists you might not have heard too much of, slightly at the expense of the more famous people. For example if you are interested in Kylie I imagine you have already watched her set. I also hope to convey some other aspects of the festival that you maybe don't get to see on television.

Let's start with Rosalía, who is an amazing flamenco/dance singer. She was one of the first acts I saw, and on a stage that I consider to be incredibly frumpy (the John Peel Tent). Rosalía was not at all frumpy though! It was like watching a headliner, incredible tight choreography, joyful vibes, everything you want from a festival Friday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr7-yIJk3bg

💸🤝👒 (buying a hat because it is so hot)

Now here is Lucy Rose. If you like sad female singer/songwriters as much as I do, you will surely like Lucy Rose. Alas there is no footage of her at Glastonbury this year but here is one of my favourite songs of hers and if you like it you could go and see her live when she plays in your town:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqtc5nxktuo

🌱🍃⚖️🌺📿🌳🎏 (chilling out in the greenfields)

Perhaps you enjoyed the ballet in the middle of Stormzy's set. I hope you did, and I hope that you enjoy this interview with Cassa Pancho. She founded Ballet Black, the company that the two dancers were from:

[W]hile at Durham University, she decided to write her dissertation on black women in British ballet — and immediately hit a wall. “I didn’t have anyone to interview — the dancers didn’t exist,” she says. “I started looking at schools and the marketing for them and realised that no one was showing any dancer of colour unless it was a box-checking exercise for funding.” After graduating she decided to do something about it — and Ballet Black was born.

https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/ballet-black-cassa-pancho-interview-dance-a4058856.html

Lizzo is all about body positivity and being an amazing dancer. She is also a highly talented flautist. I saw her sweet and high-energy performance on limited sleep in 28°C heat so sort of at my maximum emotional vulnerability:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9CTs1NsZRI

👩🏼‍🦳👨🏽‍🎤🧝🏻‍♀️👩🏻‍🦰🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏽‍♂️💃🏻🕺🏻👨‍👩‍👧‍👧🧚🏾‍♀️🧚🏼‍♂️👸🏻🙋🏼‍♀️🌯🤝👩🏼‍🍳 (waiting in a queue for food)

There is also no footage of RAY BLK at Glastonbury, but she gave an incredibly joyful and high energy show. This included her asking where her "independent boys" were in the crowd, getting men to cheer if they cooked their own food, and then turning on this one dude because she could "just tell" that he didn't do his dishes. Anyway here is her best song, Run Run:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2KlSU8VExg

🍻🤹🏽‍♀️🎷🚕🦇🎪 (pootling around the circus field)

Finally, a headliner of the festival as well as of this newsletter, here is the incredible Janelle Monáe. You will not regret making the time for this high priority set. Much love to the woman (not in the below video) who was brought onstage and could only form the statement "i LoVE yOu??!✨?" to the questions she was asked. Long video, worth every second.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu2AJScfCv4

👸🏻☕️🔥🌝 (drinking a chai and engaging in teamwork with strangers to help make a better campfire for us all)

Have an awesome weekend!

Alex xx.