Community Focus: Girl Gang Leeds.
We have admired Girl Gang Leeds from afar for a while, literally and figuratively but have always been so impressed with the work they do. They continue to work hard to support the work of women and people of marginalised genders. Admittedly, this is mainly just a wholesome chat about a passionate community that we at Crowdsurf think more people should be aware of. Girl Gang Leeds have been working hard over this lockdown period to continue to bring interesting and fun content to their community. Including our favourite livestream concert so far which they used to help raise money for acts that have been struggling due to cancelled tours, shows etc.
Hey Kaz, how are you coping with lockdown? Has it given you time to take a step back, chill and assess things with yourself and Girl Gang Leeds?
Like, not really! Most of us are still working and for me, work has actually been pretty intense and just struggling with that has been a lot.
We’ve had to cancel a few events though and that sucks!
Yeah, it's a time that almost everyone is facing a lot of the same struggles but it's affected everyone differently too. That does really suck, how many people do you have that work with Girl Gang Leeds?
There’s six of us at the moment, we all do different bits, some together and some more separate, I miss them all loads!
For those that don't know, can you explain what Girl Gang Leeds is?
Girl Gang Leeds is a creative community for women and people of marginalised genders. We put on fun events of all kinds - like gigs, meet-ups, workshops, parties and more.
Do you remember what made you start Girl Gang Leeds? Why do you think it is important to have a community like this?
It actually started in Sheffield back in 2015 (I had to scroll back through my Instagram to find that date and omg)
I didn’t start the original group - but I joined soon after they launched on social media as it was exactly what my life was lacking. I ached for friendship and support. I started up the Leeds team for the same reason, I was new to Leeds and lonely.
So at its core, it’s about connecting people and helping people to make friends. But as we’ve grown, we’ve made sure all our events reflect our core values and represent the right people. That can be anything from working closely with our local artists to platforming musicians of marginalised genders.
I think both of those things are important - the wider scope of our work, making space for people who don’t usually have it, but also a day-to-day level where we’re just helping people to make friends
There always seems to be so much love coming your way, so it’s clear you really have helped people and turned it into such a lovely community of people. You've given people a platform that they may have struggled to get without you which is so great!
Aw, that means so much, thank you!!!!
As you said earlier, it's not just gigs you do and working with musicians, you also hold art fairs, exhibitions, workshops etc.?
Yep! Our art markets are our biggest events by far!
That's so cool and during the lockdown, even though you've not been able to put on these events, you've been putting on livestreams, quizzes, movie nights and a virtual book club! How has it been?
It’s been fun! It’s all fairly low maintenance which makes a change from our usual events, which can take a hell of a lot of planning. Being able to put stuff out quickly is cool, and it’s easier to divvy up between members. It definitely makes me think about incorporating virtual stuff in the future, especially from an accessibility perspective.
And as I’m the one who runs the gigs - it’s been extremely cool to connect with bands from overseas who we wouldn’t normally get a chance to host!
Well exactly! You've got Diet Cig, Mannequin Pussy, The Tuts, Worriers, Hit Like A Girl, Cultdreams AND Arxx all on one Girl Gang Leeds line up!?
I know, it’s a dream come true haha. Imagine that live show!
Not that your line ups aren't always great, but this one would have been pretty hard to pull off at Wharf Chambers.
Haha, it really would.
Back to the accessibility point as that's probably something some people haven't considered, doing these livestreams mean that so many more people can enjoy them - people in different countries or others that struggle to get to gigs for one reason or another.
This is a nice novelty for some people right now but as you say, it is something that could start to be incorporated into what your community does and what others do as well.
Yeah, it’s really nice that anyone can join us as most of our work is super localised too!
Definitely! So, this Thursday (7/5) you have your second Girl Gang Leeds "Living Room Party" with the aforementioned line up. You've been raising money at these shows, where is the money going and how can people get involved?
We’re fundraising for all the artists involved - and it all goes to them! That’s another great thing about the virtual-ness, it doesn’t cost us anything. No venue, no sound engineer, no rider, nothing. So everything we raise will be split equally between the artists. Which is great since a lot of them are having a rough time right now, with loads of tours cancelled. Hit Like A Girl were due to be playing a Leeds show with us later this month.
Donate to the PayPal Pool here.
It’s so good that you have found a way to still support these bands that are not having a great time at the moment, such a shame about Hit Like A Girl! It's great that they are on the line up, a strange silver lining.
Yeah I’m glad we’ll still get to see them play and really hope to meet them properly at some point soon.
You've put on some great shows and parties over the years - In your opinion how can people discover more artists that are made up of or feature women and people of marginalised genders, I know that I've discovered some great artists from Girl Gang Leeds!
Aw it’s great to hear when people discover bands through us! I discover a lot of new bands from going to shows and seeing new support bands. Word of mouth is a powerful thing as well, and a lot of bands without cis men are super supportive of one another and recommend artists themselves on their social media, so follow your fave bands!
Absolutely, I wasn't aware of Wilted Flower or Chloe Hawes before your first live stream and I was absolutely blown away and have been listening to them since.
I actually found Wilted Flower via twitter, Cheerbleederz had liked their tweet of them wearing one of their shirts haha! I fell in love with their music immediately and they were a super last min addition to the [Birthday gig] lineup, just had to get them on there.
And bizarrely I met Chloe in Orlando. She was doing a pre-Fest gig at a bar in central Orlando that Fresh were playing (and who could resist going to see Fresh on holiday?!)
That's so cool that you got them involved with one of your shows straight after that. We’ve got a lot of love for Fresh, it would be impossible to resist going to see them on holiday. It's so nice to see bands/artists grow when you know they’re genuinely good people too.
Yeah for sure, especially with such lo-fi DIY shows as they often end up staying at your house after!
What's next for Girl Gang Leeds, after the lockdown and in general?
Short term we’re continuing with the online events, book club and film screenings and obviously Thursday’s gig. After the lockdown....hard to say as we’ve no idea what that’s gonna look like. We rescheduled our April art market to August and I hope that will go ahead.
We’ve been asked to do a few gigs later in the year but I’m not booking anything until we really know what’s going on. I just hope people stay in touch with us online and will be keen and eager for when we’re ready for the real world again.
But I’d love to shout out to our team - Emily, Emily, Becky, Liv and Laura - missing you guys loads and can’t wait to be together again!
I'm sure whatever happens people will definitely be keen and eager for whatever you guys decide to do when the real world is back.
Lastly - How can people support Girl Gang Leeds and find out more about your community and what you do?
Follow us on all our socials, share our posts, invite your pals to our events (IRL and online!) and please keep in touch during all of this because friendship and community makes everything better.
Check out Girl Gang Leeds socials and donate to their PayPal pool here:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Living Room Party #2 Livestream PayPal pool.