During the height of the pandemic, diversity-driven event production/experiential marketing company Ideaison launched RETROSPEKTto champion and empower women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ people in the arts.
RETROSPEKT started as a virtual festival in 2020, booking acts like LP Giobbi, Moore Kismet, MORGXN, and Kaleena Zanders and racking up more than 2 million unique Twitch viewers in 48 hours.
Last month, RETROSPEKT made the transition to a live, immersive music experience at Ground Level Studios in Downtown Los Angeles.
Now, RETROSPEKT announces the lineup for its second event, headlined by genre-blending, soul-house producer Pat Lok and LA-based dance-music prodigy Venessa Michaels. The evening’s lineup is rounded out by alternative R&B singer/songwriter/producer/saxophonist V. Cartier, hard-hitting rapper AUNDREY GUILLAUME, piano-driven house producer KAYA, and DJ/producer Maddy Maia, who is also the co-head of the female-focused !K7imprint, SOS Music.
This powerhouse roster of artists will perform on a stage designed by multimedia artist Christy Hayek, who is known for using natural elements and materials in her works. The event will also include immersive entertainment from Dahlia’s, two women founders specializing in circus performance, and live tattoos from trans artist Bobby Coyote and lesbian multimedia artist Spirit Filled Ink.
RETROSPEKT tickets are on sale now
Founder Lauren Kashuk takes us through the process of creating RETROSPEKT and facing the challenges it ensued
Tell us about Ideaison and how it evolved over the time
We started working alongside bigger entertainment companies such as music festivals until we decided to take a chance on ourselves in 2022 with the very first version of RETROSPEKT which at the time was a virtual event.
The whole point was to come up with our own event to celebrate and showcase those underrepresented artists and creatives from LGBTQIA+ communities, people of color etc. That’s the core mission of ideaison to begin with so it seemed only natural for us to pursue a full enactment of it
What should an attendee expect from RETROSPEKT? What’s the experience like?
It’s a full on immersive art series. We are embracing all kinds of forms of art and are not limiting ourselves to certain genres. To the contrary, we are featuring disco, house, techno as well as Rap, Soul and more. We wanted to create an experience that we were personally craving and not finding here in LA.
Secondly, the artistic component is paramount. We’re not in a club or traditional music venue. We decided to get an art space which features a stage that is always custom designed for the occasion. These are the aspects that makes us different from the plethora of other events you might stumble upon in LA
Tell us more about the underrepresentation aspect and why it’s so important
We should specify that there are two sides to this: the underrepresented people on stage and those behind the scenes. This is a crucial aspect for us because oftentimes many events would feature underrepresented artists while executives and generally those in charge are straight white men. Generally, a lot of the decision makers and the people in power are in fact in that category which is something we want to challenge, at the very least. So everyone who works behind the scenes at RETROSPEKT is also coming from underrepresented communities.
What do you think is the most challenging part of running an event like this?
The financial aspect is always the most challenging part. We are totally self funded which brings us back to our main topic of underrepresentation. Underrepresented communities-led events equals less opportunities for funding. That’s clearly a challenge, as one can imagine.
However, when there’s a will there’s a way! Our last few editions have been extremely successful. We had over 2 million people live streaming the event, our artists had such an uplifting experience and I just can’t feel more grateful and excited.
