All Access: All Things Go Fall Classic 2018 Recap

The All Things Go Fall Classic returned to Union Market in Washington, DC last weekend on October 6 & 7, 2018. The weekend festival featuring sets from LPX, Jessie Reyez, Maggie Rogers, Carly Rae Jepsen, Billie Eilish, Betty Who and more. 

Although I attend concerts fairly regularly, it’s been a while since I attended a weekend music festival. All Things Go Fall Classic was without a doubt the best female dominated music festival of today’s current time. 

All Things Go was founded as a music blog back in 2006, before its founders, including Adrian Maseda, editor-in-chief of All Things Go, and Zack Friendly, Stephen Vallimarescu and 

Will Suter, began to break into the live music arena. The All Things Go Fall Classic began in 2014 making this year, the fifth festival to be held in Washington D.C. The founders said their partnership with Maggie Rogers and Lizzy Plapinger came from conversations about representation in festival lineups — especially women at the top of the ticket. Festival curators have the power to promote gender equity and uplift female musicians through their selection of lineups. 

Along with Maggie Rogers and Lizzy Plapinger, the Women’s March, a women-led organization with a mission of providing intersectional education and fighting systematic oppression, partnered with All Things Go for its Power to the Polls initiative. The festival dedicated a full day to female and non-binary artists, many of them singer-songwriters as well as producers. 

On the first day of the festival, the lineup was dedicated solely to female and gender non-binary artists, including Billie Eilish, Jessie Reyez and Ravyn Lenae, as well as Maggie Rogers and LPX. I brought a fellow mom friend—who couldn’t help but notice the audience was a younger audience than what she was used to. At one point, she asked me “Do you think you’ll still be coming to festivals like this when you turn 50?” Without taking even a moment to think about that question, I enthusiastically replied “Yes! I want to be the grandmother in her 80’s taking her grandchildren to concerts. When my grandchildren are referring to Twenty One Pilots the way I refer to The Beatles and Queen as legends, I want to be able to tell them that I saw Twenty One Pilots in concert back in the day too.” But, for now I will take pride in the fact that I’m seeing 16 year old Billie Eilish rocking it out LIVE and that I’m actually able to get so close to see her on stage that I can actually see her eyelashes. 

I went alone to go to All Things Go the second day to meet up with a few fellow DC Influencer friends there. I was mostly excited to see Betty Who. I’d heard a lot about how exhilarating her performance is and how she is a huge ally to the LGBTQ community. I was only familiar with her popular pop hit “I Love You Always Forever” prior to the show. After seeing her live at All Things Go, I’ve become a huge fan of her music! The lyrics of her songs are empowering and like all of my friends said, she pours so much energy into her shows! 

All Things Go Fall Classic gave me all sorts of empowering energy thru the music and the dialogue between the artists and the audience. The messages of strength and solidarity among the women performers is so needed and important now more than ever.

I can’t wait to go again next year!