Round Up - Zine Fest at The Women's Library

We appear to have dropped off the face of the (virtual) world for a while.. Ooops. To try to make up of the lack of contact recently, here's a slightly late but better-than-never write-up of the recent Zine Fair at The Women's Library in London, which was one of the most enjoyable fests yet!

Taking place on Saturday 25th June, the event was the 4th Zine Fest to be held at the 'Library. Brilliantly organised by Red Chidgey, the day has many goings-on in store for zine fans, including comic making workshops (which Rushka attended - the fruits of her labour will be popping up soon!), survivor zine discussions, a feminist media and memory panel, tours of the library's archives, art installations, cross-stitch drop-ins and mask making! With the fair only lasting for 4 hours a lot was crammed in, and although we weren't able to sneak away for much of the programmed events we heard from friends that there were a lot of interesting, fun and thought-provoking activities and conversations.

The morning began with us doing as little directions prep as possible (living in London has made us a bit too cocky), meaning we lost about 45 minutes strolling in circles around The Women's Library like two lost loons. Thankfully, our adventure wasn't all in vain as we managed to pick up a sugary breakfast from Hummingbird Bakery to keep us going-

We had out stall inbetween the wonderful Reena from Nest and lovely Anna-Marie from Pamflet zine. The space was smaller than recent fairs we've stalled at, making it easier to get around to have a chat to the other zinesters and to catch up on what everyone's been up to.






A very special part of the day was when Erica from Girl Frenzy showed up with a suitcase of back issues of her legendery zine, and was kind enough to share them out between everyone! Girl Frenzy was one of the best known riot grrrl-inspired names in the 90s, so to get a chance to chat with Erica and to flick through copies was pretty exciting for zine nerds like us! We're hoping to sort out an interview with Erica for Shebang #4, so keep 'em peeled...

I always make a beeline for the feminist and music-related zines at the fairs, so this was the perfect opportunity to pick up EVEN MORE, just in time for my holiday... (holiday reading = best excuse)

The only trouble was that I went home and read them all from front-back straight away. Oh well. Luckily I also picked up the much lusted-after Doris anthology that I'd had my eye on for a looong time, which I hid in a suitcase so I wouldn't be tempted to read before setting off. I've written up a little review of it over on the dress up to mess up blog, so feel free to have a little read if you want to find out more.


BIG thanks again to Red for organising the day! For the full list of stallholders, click here.

xx