At the end of this week, in mere days, the Bay Area will be hosting the inaugural Doll Fest. The two day festival will take place at the Cornerstone in Berkeley, CA and is “a celebration of the feminine energy, friendship, and community gathering together in support of one another.”
The lineup is a jaw dropping list of rad bands all with a femme energy to them along with multi-genre artists. Doll Fest will feature artists such as The Darts, Tsunami Bomb, Dog Party, Tess & The Details and many more on March 1st and 2nd along with a pre-show party on February 28th.
We wanted to get in on the action, so we’ve asked the amazing bands a handful of questions about the festival including who they’re stoked to be playing with and what they think a festival of this caliber means to our scene.
We spoke with Becky and Natasha of The Iron Roses about personal struggles and the results of transforming yourself in a public realm, navigating the scene as female/femme, the diverse experiences and musical influences of their band members, and the importance and dire need of festivals like Doll Fest. Check out our interview below and grab your tickets to Doll Fest now via their website here!
Interview
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’re excited to play Doll Fest.
Hey y’all! My name is Becky (she/her) and I am one of the co-lead vocalists of a little East Coast punk band called The Iron Roses. Doll Fest will actually be the first show we have ever played in California together, and we are so god damned excited that we get to make our debut there as part of such a rad event. This will also be the first femme-forward event we’ve been a part of, and so there are a lot of emotions around that for me, and for my co-lead in crime, Nat (she/they).
A few months ago, Maria and I were talking back and forth on IG about life and about Doll Fest plans, and we decided to just set time for a video chat date since we realized we had a lot of common threads in our lives. I think we ended up talking for two hours or so on video – it was like connecting with someone I had known for decades, despite never having crossed paths before. It really made me notice how few femmes I actually had in my musical/music-related circle and I remember feeling so energized and seen and safe. I am counting down the days until I can hug her neck IRL and thank her for what she’s done to create this space for us all.
Which bands are you most stoked to see or play alongside?
To start, I know we all can’t wait to see our friends Dollheads! We had a chance to share a bill with them at Punk Rock Bowling and Punk Rock Saves Lives fest last year, and I absolutely adore them. I am also super pumped to FINALLY see Tess and The Details. I’ve been following their journey the past year and a half or so, and I am genuinely excited to get to experience their set. Also at the top of our list is Tsunami Bomb and Slaughterhouse!
How has the Oakland music scene or Bay Area culture influenced your sound/creative process?
I knew Nat would love this question, and so I posed it to them and got an immediate response of: “Crimpshrine, Green Day, any band on Lookout, Pansy Division, and of course, Operation Ivy, Samiam, and Jawbreaker.”
One of the things I love about creating with a group of folks who come from so many different musical backgrounds and places of life is that we are able to create a sound that really pulls from so many places. Nat and Pedro are both very attuned to a West Coast/Bay Area sound, despite the fact that our band is spread out along the East between Boston and Richmond. Some of our major sound influences are from scene some of us have never even stepped foot in.
How do you see events like Doll Fest contributing to greater representation and empowerment of women in the music industry?
Of course I’d love for there to be a day when ALL festivals are planned with more intention in mind, but I feel like we are still so far off from achieving that, if ever. I follow the bookmorewomen IG page, and they do these incredible infographics that take tour and festival posters and break them down into percentages of the bill based on gender and/or identity, and it really highlights the lack of representation out there even in 2025.
Until/unless we get to a place where both real diversity and representation is happening in the music industry, AND within diverse events and spaces everyone has the ability to show up AS IS – without retaliation, mistreatment, or invalidation – then we still have work to do. It’s not just about making the space, it’s about purposefully making the space that’s there to be even more safe, equitable, and hospitable.
What unique challenges have you or your bandmates faced as female musician, and how have you overcome them?
While Nat handles the leadership from a music aspect, I lead the business of the band. We both have unique talents in each area that dictated that, and it works for us. That said, I have often caught myself thinking “am I being a bitch or am I just a woman getting shit done in the same manner a man in this industry would?” I started out being afraid to be too much – like worrying about double or triple emailing when a promoter hasn’t responded because I don’t want to be seen as annoying or pushy. Then I started noticing that the femmes around me who were getting shit done weren’t dialing themselves back in order to do so, and that helped me let go of some of that unnecessary self-policing. I had a promoter tell me directly that he was glad my partner “added a pretty girl to the band” a couple years back, and that lit a fire in me like nothing I’ve ever experienced professionally. It was gloves off time, and I made the decision right then that we don’t have to work with anyone who doesn’t respect all of us equally.
Nat has a unique journey herself. She has been in the public eye for over 30 years as an artist, but only recently (in 2022) came out publicly as trans/non-binary. She has had a lot of overcoming to do to be seen as she is, and not as what people have “grown up” knowing her as. It’s a fight I have watched her push through with class, even when she wanted to give up and go back in the closet. There was an intense amount of hate messages that came Nat’s way once the news went public, and so she is really re-building as a person and seeing how that lens changes experiences she’s known for 50 years – even simple things like venue bathrooms and not wanting to be in small spaces with drunk men. I know she is looking forward to Doll Fest with a special kind of excitement about being in an environment where she feels completely seen and safe.
What message do you hope to convey to your audience through your performance at Doll Fest?
This year has been devastating for so many of us. One of the things we always try to put forth in our live show is that we can be angry and scared and confused and enraged, but that joy can co-exist with those feelings. We talk about some very heavy things in our songs, but we do it in such a way that sonically, it feels hopeful. And there is nothing that pisses off a bully more than knowing there’s a piece of you that they cannot touch. That piece of us is what we come together to celebrate in our show.
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