By Miranda Betts from Women In Tune

"Women in Tune (WIT) all began when Heather Summers, founder and co-ordinator, was completing a community music training course with Community Music Wales. She was given an assignment to create her own project.

As an experienced professional musician and performer, Heather noticed that there was a glaring lack of women musicians on the circuit. She also noticed that even (or especially) within the commercial/ mainstream music industry, women were not well represented, and where they were, it was usually just as singer or backing singer.

Later, this imbalance became even more apparent as Heather tried to find and book female sound engineers for the WIT Festival, and other WIT events. She suspected that this imbalance was not limited to her own geographical location.

WIT Festival evolved then from this one-off project, which became a vision of inclusivity for all women and girls in music. Women in Tune made a commitment to redress the gender imbalance within the field of music, and to try and make events fully accessible to all women and girls who wanted to participate.

The ethos is clearly an inclusive one, which recognises and respects difference, and celebrates diversity. The primary aim was, and continues to be, that of offering women and girls the opportunities to participate in music, at all levels. WIT tries to be fully accessible to everyone who wants to participate, and as a result attracts a wonderful diversity of women and girls.

The only festival of its kind in the UK, it is visited by women from all corners of Britain. Women also came from far and wide to experience the unique, inclusive, and friendly atmosphere that is WIT Festival.

One woman came from Japan because her friend, who visited last year, had recommended WIT to her. Some came from Europe too, from Germany, Holland and France, as WIT has recently emerged as one of the most important all-women music events in Europe.

Disabled women were welcomed, and every effort was made to make the Festival accessible to them, with their widely varied specific needs. Personal assistants (P.As) were allocated to women who could not bring their own, and a team of floating P.A's were available throughout the event.

In 2003, there were sign language interpreters at all evening performances, as well as at workshops and social times. The signers were imperative to Deaf women attending but they were also an added extra performance art form for hearing women.

Maggie Hampton of (Arts Disability Wales) gave a very popular Signed Song workshop where many women learned to song-sign Moon River, and Wonderful World. Participants easily picked up this less formal version of signing, and also had the opportunity to perform these songs on the Open Stage.

Many have returned home in search of local BSL classes. As a dancer I found the signing extremely fascinating, as it is not only a vital form of communication for many, but also a beautiful language of movement and means of self expression, with an extensive and wonderful vocabulary.

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