{"id":2447874,"date":"2019-08-22T14:03:18","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T20:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=865844"},"modified":"2019-08-22T14:03:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T20:03:18","slug":"lykke-li-on-her-debut-yola-fest-i-think-its-a-beautiful-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/lykke-li-on-her-debut-yola-fest-i-think-its-a-beautiful-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Lykke Li on Her Debut Yola Fest: \u2018I Think It\u2019s a Beautiful Opportunity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/lykke-li-yola-dia.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/lykke-li\/\">Lykke Li<\/a> didn\u2019t always intend to host her own music festival. But when she partnered with her friend Yola Jimenez to form <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/article\/yola-jimenez-yola-mezcal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a mezcal company<\/a> \u2013 based on a family recipe from Jimenez\u2019s Oaxacan grandfather \u2013 the two began to promote it by hosting \u201cinformal music gatherings\u201d at Li\u2019s house.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201c<\/span><span>I met Yola maybe five, six years ago, and then it took us a couple years to get [the company] off the ground,\u201d the Swedish singer\/songwriter explains. In addition to her home, Li hosted<\/span> Yola Mezcal events in what she calls \u201cother interesting architectural spaces\u201d around Los Angeles, combining food and drinks with music performed by their friends and political causes. \u201c<span>We\u2019ve partnered before with ACLU and Planned Parenthood,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This year, Li and Jimenez took their gathering to a much larger scale. After the original June dates were delayed, the first ticketed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yolafest.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Yola Dia Fest<\/a> was held in downtown Los Angeles\u2019 State Historic Park on August 18th. In addition to Li herself, the musical lineup included mainstays like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/cat-power\/\">Cat Power<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/courtney-love\/\">Courtney Love<\/a> \u2013 who performed stripped-down versions of Hole songs along with covers of Fleetwood Mac and Echo &amp; the Bunnymen \u2013 alongside rising stars like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/megan-thee-stallion\/\">Megan Thee Stallion<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/sophie\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sophie\" data-tag=\"sophie\">Sophie<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/cupcakke\/\">Cupcakke<\/a>. The food, drinks and art sold at the event were primarily created by women chefs, mixologists and artists, and speakers like labor activist Dolores Huerta took the stage between musical acts.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI definitely want to emphasize that this is a festival where we highlight women, but it\u2019s not a festival for only women,\u201d says Li. \u201cThis is really a place to connect \u2026 I think so much in the world now is about technology and disconnection, so [this is] just a place to be present.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lorely Rodriguez, who performs as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/empress-of\/\" id=\"auto-tag_empress-of\" data-tag=\"empress-of\">Empress Of<\/a>, was drawn to performing at the festival because of its illustrious lineup and welcomeness to non-male artists. \u201cIn general, I think trying to be inclusive by isolating an underrepresented demographic isn\u2019t always the best,\u201d she says. \u201cJust book these groups in your festivals!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s festival partnered with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/arcade-fire\/\">Arcade Fire\u2019s<\/a> concert nonprofit <a href=\"http:\/\/plus1.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">PLUS1<\/a> and donated a portion of ticket proceeds to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtownwomenscenter.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Downtown Women\u2019s Center<\/a>, a local organization focused on serving LA\u2019s population of homeless women.<\/p>\n<p>Of Yola Fest\u2019s overall ethos, Li proclaims, \u201c<span>We always go with our heart, people who excite us and who we think are pushing the norm in some ways \u2026 Just come and get stoned and drink and talk and dance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/lykke-li-yola-fest-865844\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lykke Li didn\u2019t always intend to host her own music festival. But when she partnered with her friend Yola Jimenez to form a mezcal company \u2013 based on a family recipe from Jimenez\u2019s Oaxacan grandfather \u2013 the two began to promote it by hosting \u201cinformal music gatherings\u201d at Li\u2019s house. \u201cI met Yola maybe five, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 15:56:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}