Some festivals feel like a lineup. Doll Fest feels like a living room full of friends you haven’t met yet. Founded in Oakland and powered by an unapologetically all-femme, all-heart crew, Doll Fest has grown into something that’s part show, part shelter, part love letter to everyone who’s ever felt sidelined in a scene that claimed to be “open.”
We sat down with Maria Chaos to talk about smashing the patriarchy, building safer stages, the quiet moments that matter more than headlines, and why sometimes the most punk thing you can do is make a space that feels like a hug.
SZ: Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Doll Fest!
MC: My name is Maria Chaos, I am the Founder/ Director/ Talent Buyer of Doll Fest. Doll Fest is an all ages, all femme-fronted and all femme owned and operated music festival that is East Bay of California based. I have an incredible, incredible team of folx that are amazing, big shout out to my business partner Freya for being the Black Cat to my Golden Retriever aka the person who tells me no, haha. Doll Fest is pushing for a more charitable touch and this year, we are donating a portion of the proceeds to the Transgender Law Center, of which we chose because their HQ is located in Oakland. They are also doing a lot right now to help with communities around the US, especially those that are being heavily affected by the current political climate. 
SZ: Doll Fest has a very specific energy—protective, joyful, defiant. What moment or feeling first made you realize this festival needed to exist?
MC: Firstly, I love those three words as your interpretation of describing us. Like wow, the honor, thank you. Doll Fest came into fruition because well, I was pissed at the patriarchy claiming to be welcoming and open to diversity.
I would regularly attend regional shows, regional festivals, out of state and international music festivals and constantly witness all white man bands repeatedly playing/booking the same bands on tours, fests, and shows in general, claiming that they, as well, wanted to see more diversity on stage.
But where? Was it money, tokenization, or just empty promises? I have no idea, but I wanted to do something about it.
The most diverse part of most of those collective events I was attending were the audience members. And I could count on typically one hand how many marginalized people were fronting the bands, sometimes one hand just in general of members.
My favorite comment overheard about a So Cal festival I attended a while back was that there were 6 women who played the entire festival and one was “just a bassist.” Comments like that also fuel the fire that I knew Doll Fest needed to exist.
SZ: Oakland has a long history of radical art, music, and organizing. How does the city shape Doll Fest, and how does Doll Fest talk back to Oakland?
MC: This is a great question and I honestly have been waiting for someone to ask this or something similar. Going back in time, I grew up about an hour and ten minutes from Oakland in a shit town called Stockton, CA and like most 18 year olds, I would escape to The City to go have some fun, and would later escape to another part of California all together, later Portland, OR, but I was told by my boomer family that Oakland was dangerous/scary/Mufasa worthy of I must never go there.
I was reintroduced to Oakland in my late twenties by some friends and fell in love. Oakland was and is rich with history, culture, genuine people, passionate people and artistic people.
The Bay Area in general embodies this, but there is something special about Oakland. People are unapologetic about their love for the arts in whatever form and that is also what Doll Fest is. Unapologetic in its passion within the movement that is happening both in the entertainment realm as well as the political realm. We’re here and we’re not going anywhere.
SZ: “All-femme” can mean a lot of things depending on who’s saying it. How do you personally define it in the context of Doll Fest?
MC: All-femme can plainly mean not cis het male. I used to define it as cis women, queer women, transwomen, nonbinary, gender fluid and androgenous folx; anyone societally “femme/girly/female”, which still seems like a wide array of folx. I was recently schooled by a trans masc person that told me their trans masc community cannot be denied the female experience. That they felt that within their own queer community they weren’t part of the club, and that really broke my heart because that is the opposite of what Doll Fest and the Doll Fest Fam is about; I felt like I was creating something within something I did not want to exist. So now we are a bit more expansive.
SZ: What were you trying to protect or reclaim when you first started building this festival?
MC: I wanted to reclaim the idea that you can just be yourself without worrying that someone was going to bother you negatively for who you are. There is a shift in the culture of just living where it is very much loved, accepted and welcomed for you to be you, but there is still very much a movement of pushing back on the societal acceptance of who you are. Anything that Doll Fest touches, is a place that says, be you, have fun, make friends and let’s keep doing it. And being able to do that without a billboard reminding you, because I want these events to not need reminders of that; you just know. Or better yet, you can just feel it without question.
SZ: What parts of punk culture still feel essential to you—and what parts are you consciously leaving behind?
MC: I want to expand on this and say music vs just punk culture because this event is not just a punk festival. In the beginning, yes there was a heavy emphasis on just this genre alone. I initially thought that putting ourselves in a musical box would work, but it worked against us.
And it all changed in one moment.
My business partner texted me one day while I was in the midst of piecing together the lineup for Volume II, wanting a specific artist, who was not punk to play the festival and I said okay without any question of her suggestion. I started listening to the music and seeing how aligned they were with our mission, along with a long list of other positive factors, I had a come to the light moment.
I felt a bit of shame that I had pushed away so many genres in my own personal listening, as well as with artists that have reached out over the last two years. I never outwardly said no you can’t play, but just more hey we are doing this right now, and we’ll figure it out later.
Even typing that out as a summary makes me feel sad that I did that because that even feels like I created a distance and I should be community building. I hope that my past mistakes don’t curate a sense of gatekeeping because the only people I don’t want attending any of these events are assholes. What specific kind, well that’s another conversation and a longer list.
SZ: DIY sounds romantic, but it’s also exhausting. What does DIY actually look like for you behind the scenes?
MC: Exactly as the acronym is spelled out; doing it yourself whether I am doing it literally myself or asking the team (past and present) helping out, or calling out for volunteers. We are not in a position to pay folx to do various tasks, so having those volunteers I am so grateful for.
SZ: Was there a moment where you almost didn’t continue with Doll Fest? What kept you going?
MC: There have been so many times that I have wanted to walk away because of a plethora of reasons. We all suffer from imposter syndrome, the world just sucks overall right now, and sometimes we make mistakes that are misinterpreted making us second guess who we are as people in this world in general.
With all that being said, the growing community is what keeps me going. There is a very, very supportive gentleman named Dru who literally wrote on someone’s Instagram page, “140 days until Doll Fest.” Someone is out there counting the amount of days until Doll Fest….
Just last night while I was volunteering at Gilman, someone was talking about the Doll Fest flyer left at the community events area inside the venue and I was talking to them about it. I don’t like to make it all about me because Doll Fest is about community, but they seemed so fascinated that I knew so much so I just briefly mentioned being the Founder and they literally jumped for joy thanking me for creating the event. The joy that this event brings to people is what I wanted.
Additionally, the team members of Doll Fest, both current and prior, are all just so passionate about the mission, that they also really keep me going. The genuine desire to want to make this event happen was really something so special that I can hardly put it into words at times.
SZ: How do you balance creating a safe, inclusive space without sanding down the rawness that makes punk feel alive?
MC: By continuously shouting from the roof tops that this event is for the marginalized, the allies that are not afraid to fight, and fuck the patriarchy.
SZ: Doll Fest feels community-first rather than industry-first. Was that a deliberate choice, or something that evolved naturally?
MC: That was 100% a deliberate choice. Music is for the people, the audience, and the musicians, not for the high ups to make money off of someone’s art. I want Doll Fest to be a platform that feels personable on all levels from Instagram to in person to email. We need more genuine kindness in the world.
I’m a trauma-informed and trained 200 Hour Yoga Instructor and one of the main philosophies are the 8 “rules” of living/breathing the foundations of yoga. And essentially it’s if you are expressing the need for more kindness and genuine compassion, then you yourself need to be embodying those philosophies as well as practicing them. AKA actions speak louder than words.
SZ: How do you think femme-fronted and gender-diverse artists are still being overlooked—or tokenized—by mainstream festivals?
MC: How or why? They aren’t booking them, that’s how, why? Because everything in our society favors white men. Punk music has historically been dominated by white men. Many of the older Punk crowd are comfortable with listening and watching the same bands they grew up listening to.
There is nothing wrong with that. I’m guilty of it as well.
But what is wrong is the theme I have observed when that same group refuses to listen to newer bands, less traditional punk bands, and even shit on them because they aren’t the bands they grew up with.
Isn’t the punk scene supposed to be the most welcoming of scenes? So this puts many of the mainstream festival promoters and talent buyers in a really weird position; tickets won’t sell if you don’t book the same old white man bands. So what do you do? Book them. So that’s why I do the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to do. I book bands that have followings sure, but I am not afraid to bring in a band that is newer or not as popular in a certain area because their music is good, they’re good people and they believe in the mission that fuels the fire of Doll Fest.
There is a really great Instagram page called @bookmorewomen that literally calculates the percentage of women and nonbinary folx are on lineups and the numbers are horrifying. Easily averaging 10 or less percent of the festival lineup. I hope one day the majority of these festivals have much higher percentages.
SZ: What does “success” look like for Doll Fest if you’re not measuring it in numbers or growth metrics?
MC: When people say they are so excited about the event, cannot wait to experience it for the first or now second time, traveling in from far away for the event, or counting down the days until Doll Fest. That is success to me.
SZ: Are there any moments from past festivals that still stick with you—quiet ones, not headline-worthy ones?
MC: As I mentioned previously, I have attended multiple festivals in other regions as well as countries. Some for the first time, some the first and last time, and some that I want to go to every year.
I was recently at Fest in Florida this past October 2025. I think as a woman, many other women can attest to this phenomenon that we sense when misogyny is in the “room”. I feel that at every festival, it’s inevitable. I did not feel an ounce of that at Fest. It was like walking into the largest group of friends I had not met yet and it was beautiful.
I made a few new friends that I still chat with and people from as far as Illinois, Florida and Wisconsin told me they had heard of Doll Fest. Like this little thing?
One of the members of gloomy june that played the first Doll Fest told me that they felt the vibes of Fest were very similar to those of Doll Fest and my heart melted hearing that. That’s all I want. Good people who are able to attend a good event that just feels like you are walking into a hug.
SZ: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start something similar but is intimidated by the scale of such a project?
MC: Don’t. (Laughs while crying at the same time)
SZ: How do you avoid burnout when the work is so emotionally invested?
MC: Yoga, crying, and going on vacations I can’t always afford. After all of that, I breathe and remember these events are for the community and not myself.
SZ: In a time when “feminism” is often branded and diluted, how do you keep Doll Fest politically meaningful?
MC: By continuously saying “Smash The Patriarchy!”, therefore people know where we stand, and continuously bringing up the Doll Fest Fam so that it shouts community-oriented.
SZ: Has organizing Doll Fest changed how you experience music as a fan?
MC: It totally has and that could easily be a separate interview within itself. I wouldn’t say it’s for the better or the worse; it fluctuates. Sometimes I can turn my brain off and just have a good time without thinking, comparing, or fantasizing with anything Doll Fest related, but most of the time, I’m thinking about music business when I’m at a show because this is my passion. I suppressed this passion of mine for so long for a long list of reasons and now my reason in life is music and to be part of music. And maybe make some cool things happen. And meet some really cool people along the way. That’s what being a music fan is after all.
SZ: How do you decide whose voices get amplified on the Doll Fest stage?
MC: Another question that could be another separate interview. I want everyone who wants to play to someday play on that stage. There are some business decisions I have to make in order for this to get to a place of monetary success. My business partner, Freya, I call the black cat to my golden retriever. I’m always the black cat in the other aspects of my life, but this is the one area where I need to be told no because if it were up to me, this would be a festival that happens every weekend, which is not sustainable. My dream is to one day only ask the direct support and headliners to play, and everyone else is submission based. The Doll Fest Fam would simply buy their tickets because they know the music and community would always be phenomenal. One day…
SZ: What do you hope artists feel when they leave Doll Fest—something specific, not just “supported”?
MC: That was so fun, I want to do that again or I want to attend.
SZ: If Doll Fest didn’t exist five years from now, what would you want its legacy to be?
MC: I can’t think about Doll Fest not existing. If it doesn’t exist one day, I will handle/ get to that when it does, but for now, Doll Fest is thriving, exciting, fresh, new and happening. I can’t think of anything else of it being any other way.
SZ: What else, if anything, do you want us to know about Doll Fest now and in the future?
MC: The expansions are not just stopping in Mexico City. That much I can tell you. Wink wink.
SZ: What’s giving you hope right now—inside the music scene or outside of it?
MC: That’s a rough one. My answer varies and fluctuates daily because frankly, living is hard and the world is so shitty right now. Through art, we’re encouraged to keep doing what we want to be doing. When you see the same heavy, depleting events on repeat like we are in some type of rude groundhog day, being creative can be that much more challenging. But if we stop, then they win.
As for outside of music and art…. It’s exhausting to even open up your phone. We’re barely 2 weeks into 2026 and it feels like enough to fit into 6 months has happened.
But forcing myself to answer with a less somber reply, it’s the younger generations that give me hope right now. In my day job I primarily work with a terrifying, but incredible age group; middle schoolers and they’re going to be all right. The kids that play music are still discovering the greats, they can all talk about their feelings in ways I never could when I was their age, they are fearless, and fearlessly unapologetically themselves.
They showcase a kind of confidence that I don’t think I saw within myself until at least 15 years later in my life. When I see the students experiencing the joy that comes from art, whether it’s just a hobby or a passion, it shines a beauty that I think is truly looked past. The kids really are going to be all right.
If Maria’s vision keeps expanding (and the not-so-subtle wink says it will), one thing stays constant: Doll Fest isn’t chasing trends or numbers. It’s chasing that moment when a room full of people realizes, all at once, that they’re safe here. And that’s a kind of success you can’t measure.
Check out the links below for news on upcoming events and ticket information!
Website: dollfest.net
Instagram: @dollfest
AXO (she/her) is a multidisciplinary creator, editor, and builder of feminist media ecosystems based in Toronto. She is the founder of She Zine Mag, Side Project Distro, BBLGM Club, and several other projects under the AXO&Co umbrella — each rooted in DIY culture, creative rebellion, and community care. Her work explores the intersection of craft, technology, and consciousness, with an emphasis on handmade ethics, neurodivergent creativity, and the politics of making. She is an advocate for accessible creativity and the power of small-scale cultural production to spark social change. Her practice merges punk, print, and digital media while refusing to separate the emotional from the practical. Above all, her work invites others to build creative lives that are thoughtful, defiant, and deeply handmade.
