Eastern Michigan University’s first annual Feminist Fest featured appearances from different local and national organizations and companies involved in women’s interest.
Students floated in and out of the Grand Ballroom on the second floor of the Student Center for the first annual Feminist Fest. The event took place Tuesday afternoon and was put on by The Women’s Resource Center.
The Barre Code, a workout studio that practices the barre method has two locations in Ann Arbor and was one of the many booth holders.
“I think it’s great,” said Adrianne Madisas, who attended the event. “[People had] great energy and huge turnout considering it’s the first one.”
Many of the organizations were running out of handouts due to the amount of visitors.
“We’ve had a really good turnout today,” said Ellen Collier, coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center. “I was trying to be optimistic, but we are very happy with the turn out.”
Students mostly came in waves during class breaks. Nicole Sabel and Samantha Henning were some of the few that came to the fest during their free time.
“It was informative,” said Sabel, a freshman at Eastern. “A lot of resources for woman [were offered].”
“It was really cool because feminism is something people are still unsure about and having a safe place like this to get information is good,” said Henning.
A big attraction was Slamlet, a roller skater from the Ann Arbor area Roller Derby. The derby has about 100 people in the league and plays in the Ypsilanti area during the winter. They had a sign up sheet for those who were interested in volunteering or skating. Slamlet was happy to be at the fest and got many students to sign up.
“I had a freshman say to me, ‘Well, I’m going to try something new,’ and I was like ‘Yes, yes you are,’” said Slamlet.
T-shirts, buttons, chocolates and stickers were being sold to raise money for the Safe House, a 24-hour organization for the prevention of domestic and sexual violence. It was estimated that around $500 had been raised before the event had even ended.
