Aluna today announces her very own personally curated all Black, POC, Female electronic virtual festival, ALUNA & FRIENDS: RODEO RAVE. One half of the internationally renowned duo AlunaGeorge, Aluna Francis is stepping out solo, riding the wave of freedom that came with her new album, Renaissance, from earlier this year.
“Originally, putting together my dream festival line up (Black, POC and women DJs who play dope dance music) was an incredible goal, a chance to show exactly how I see the future of mainstream dance festivals.” Aluna reveals about the festival. “Then we found out the Compton Cowboys we’re down to help us put the festival on and all of a sudden you have this parallel of two black people in totally different worlds doing the same thing — re-invigorating the inclusion of black people in a space where we had been erased. Getting to connect like this is really what music should always be about — bringing people together. This is gonna be an epic cultural moment for myself and anyone who is looking forward to the future of dance music.”
Kicking off this Sunday, November 1 at 12:45 PM PST, the festival will include guest DJ sets from BAMBII, GuiltyBeatz, UNIIQU3, Lady Bee, Kiddy Smile, and Austin Millz. Aluna will also be performing RENAISSANCE in full, streaming live on Twitch from the Compton Cowboys Ranch in Los Angeles.
This festival is especially important given her own context in dance music. “In the past when performing on the stages of my white male peers, I always felt like a visitor being one of the few Black women I could see,” she says. “So, it never fully occurred to me to claim dance music as my music, as an artist, even though it was at the heart of my connection to music. Then I looked at the history of dance music and saw how, for example, Chicago House, known as the invention of house music, was pioneered in the Black and Latino LGTBQ+ communities which gave me inspiration to stake my flag in the ground as a Black woman in dance music by taking control of production and songwriting with my own vibe.”
Find the stream here on Sunday!
