One of the biggest music and arts festivals in Tampa Bay is back after a two year-long, pandemic-induced hiatus—and it arrives with a brand new name, revamped events, and a dedicated approach to accessibility.
The two week-long FabAF-IFF Music & Arts Festival runs from Sep. 23-Oct. 2 throughout downtown Sarasota; queer folks and art lovers alike (and everyone who occupies the middle of that Venn diagram) will have a chance to enjoy a wide variety of events that feature mediums like visual art, live music, dance, spoken word, independent film, performance art and more.
FabAF-IFF Music & Arts Festival
Sept. 23-Oct. 2
Multiple venues, downtown Sarasota
harveymilkfestival.org
Popularly known by its previous name—Harvey Milk Festival—this celebration of LGBTQ+ art and expression is entering its 11th year, with founder and director Shannon Fortner (she/they) at its helm, like always.
With last year’s festival forcibly canceled due to the pandemic, Fortner and her organization the Fabulous Arts Foundation (FabAF for short), felt like they had enough time to initiate the inevitable name change.
“We felt like this was the most appropriate time to change the name, as we’re slowly coming out of COVID. People might be confused for a second but we’ll all come out on the same side of things” Fortner tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “By 2022 we’ll have acquired three different festivals, so it was too confusing to keep everything under the Harvey Milk umbrella.”
FabAF’s Music and Arts Festival and the Independent Film Festival will occur over the next two weeks, but the organization’s first annual Drag Culture celebration won’t debut until 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the famed Sarasota festival in more ways than one: all of the concerts, performances and panels will now be available for streaming— as Fortner and the other board members acknowledge that the pandemic is not yet over. One event in particular, titled “Creatives Navigating Mental Health”, is an online-only panel which explores the relationship between musicians and their mental health.
According to Fortner, all of the foundation’s programming will be virtually accessible moving forward.
“There might be some kid in the midwest who stumbles upon the festival and their access to the programming could help them feel accepted in some sort of community,” Fortner explains. “Our main goal as an organization is to connect to as many folks in the community as we can, and help make them feel like they have a family.”
The festivities kick off at the opening night party on Thursday, Sept. 23, which will immerse attendees in a whimsical “Queer Utopia” where everyone is encouraged to dress in their own interpretation of that theme. Friday night’s celebration focuses on dance and movement, while Saturday hosts the multi-genre music festival, which features artists such as Divine AF, Roxx Revolt & The Velvets, SuperKnova, MoonKissed and MeteorEYES—Fortner’s own band which recently dropped its newest single “Gravity”.
The second week of events are part of the Independent Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 30-Oct. 2. These film features and panels are social distance friendly, as they’re either a drive-in movie experience or a virtual gathering. Last year, FabAF hosted drive-in LGBTQ+ film screenings, and the community feedback was so positive that Fortner and the board of directors knew they had to bring it back for 2021. This is one of the many examples of the type of community input that the foundation puts at the forefront of its advocacy—suggestions often come directly from the people.
For the first time in the festival’s decade-long run, events are ticketed to ensure COVID safety protocols are enforced—although they’re priced reasonably to keep everything as accessible as possible. Creating an inclusive queer community is at the heart of the organization’s mission, regardless of whether folks are local or not. The hashtag “IAMFABAF” was also created this year to help make people from across the globe feel included in this community via social media.
And when the festivities of the next two weeks are over, FabAF will continue to focus on LGBTQ+ education and diversity training throughout the greater Tampa Bay area. But its greatest goal is to establish a physical homebase where it can host multiple events, artist residencies and more.
“We’ve been working for the past five years to build a queer performing arts and community center, so we can house all of our programming and continue to do the work year-round,” Shannon told CL. “It’s all about elaborating more on our advocacy work within the community.”
Although the foundation changed its name from Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay politicians in the country, Fortner and their fellow board members are still fervently dedicated to furthering his mission of LGBTQ+ inclusion. According to Fortner, the capital campaign to raise money for their community center will launch soon.
To find tickets and further information for the FabAF-IFF Music & Arts Festival events, visit their website harveymilkfestival.org.
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This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2021.